Pulling the Strings
by Akatsuki210
Summary: In their quest to save Gaara from the Akatsuki, Sakura and Chiyo fought and defeated the deadly puppetmaster, Akasuna no Sasori.  But who was Sasori?  Why did he turn himself into a puppet?  Why did he abandon the Sand village to join Akatsuki? COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

So, a while ago I got to thinking about Sasori--why did he turn himself into a puppet? Why did he abandon the Sand village to join Akatsuki? Eventually, the thinking turned into writing, and this is the result. I've written a couple of fanfics before, but this is the first one I've posted here (it's also posted on the NF forums). Reviews are much appreciated--I hope you all enjoy the story!

Rating: T (because there will probably be some violence in the later chapters).

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Spoiler Warning: This fic contains severe spoilers for those who do not read the manga (i.e. anime-only watchers).

* * *

**Pulling the Strings**

"_Those who never feel will never cry. But neither will they laugh._

_Those who never love will never hurt. But neither will they live."_

_--Unknown_

_Chapter 1: A Birth in the Desert_

The day Akasuna no Sasori was born was hot and dry. This was not unusual in Sunagakure, the Hidden Village of the Sand. What _was _unusual was the violent sandstorm that had practically shut down the village. Even the shinobi went outside only when necessary, to avoid being buffeted by the gale-force winds and having their skin scraped raw by the swirling sand.

Kobayashi Yashuro, Sand's top medic nin, was one of the few who had braved the harsh conditions on that day. He had received an urgent message that Matsumoto Ukaya, daughter of the legendary Chiyo-baasama, was in labor. Wrapping a scarf around his face and donning a visor to shield his eyes, Yashuro stepped out into the street and staggered towards Ukaya's house. Three times, the wind nearly ripped his medical kit out of his hand. Twice, it knocked him over. Once, it slammed him against a wall. Finally, he made it to Ukaya's dwelling, where he was ushered inside by an anxious-looking Chiyo.

As was traditional, the women of the Matsumoto family had gathered to provide support for their kinswoman as she gave birth. Young and old, they had gathered at Ukaya's bedside. Ukaya herself looked tired and frightened; she had never experienced childbirth before. Yashuro set his medical kit down on a small bedside table and arranged his instruments neatly on a clean towel.

"Remember, take deep, even breaths," Chiyo reminded Ukaya gently, and the younger woman nodded weakly.

"Everything's going to be all right," Yashuro assured her. "This will go smoothly, I promise." Activating a seal, he gently placed his hands on Ukaya's stomach, letting chakra flow into her to dull the pain of her contractions. Forming a more complicated series of seals, he again used his chakra, this time to ease the baby out of Ukaya's body and into the world.

"Look at his hair!" exclaimed a cousin whose name Yashuro couldn't remember. "He looks just like his father!" Indeed, the average-sized baby boy whom Yashuro now held in his arms had hair the color of a flame. Wrapping the baby in soft, dry cloths, Yashuro handed him to his mother, who was exhausted but happy.

"You see, I promised you everything would go smoothly," he said cheerfully. "What are you going to name him?"

"I'm going to give him the name that was the nickname of our Shodaime Kazekage, the founder and hero of this village. I'm going to name him Sasori."

* * *

Matsumoto Sasori was a healthy baby, if a bit quieter than the average infant. He was the pride and joy of both his parents, and all of the relatives and friends who visited their home over the next few weeks exclaimed over his smile, his bright green eyes, his fiery hair, and his good temper. Chiyo doted on him as all grandmothers do with their grandchildren, and the Sandaime Kazekage himself visited to take a look at the youngster.

Sasori grew quickly, and while he always retained his father's crimson hair and jade eyes, it was clear that he was going to have his mother's slender build. Since both of his parents were shinobi, he spent a lot of time at his grandmother's house while they were away on missions. Naturally, this made him curious about the whole idea of being a ninja.

"Chiyo-baasama, what does it mean that Mother and Father are shinobi?" he asked one day. Standing next to her as she sat polishing her kunai and shuriken, he barely came up to her knee. He peered up at her with wide eyes that were filled with the innocent curiosity only a child could muster.

"It means that they protect and defend this village."

"But who do they protect it _from_? Who would want to hurt us?"

Chiyo sighed. This was a conversation one should not have to have with a child this young, but it was unavoidable in a shinobi family. "Sasori-kun, all the people you have met in your life are good and kind. But not all people in this world are like that. Some people want our land, or our resources, or the secret jutsus that our shinobi have developed, to make themselves more powerful. To keep others from taking what is ours, people like your mother and father become shinobi and protect the village."

Sasori's eyes went from Chiyo's face to the weapons she was polishing. "You're a shinobi too, aren't you?"

"Yes, Sasori-kun, I am."

Again, Sasori seemed to fixate on the long, sharp kunai in Chiyo's hand. "Do shinobi ever have to kill people?"

Chiyo sighed deeply and bowed her head, eyes closed. "Sasori-kun, sometimes…sometimes the bad people I told you about…the people we have to protect our village from…sometimes they won't give up just from being frightened away or injured. Yes, we do sometimes have to kill. But Sasori-kun…" Chiyo put the weapon down on the table and cupped Sasori's small face in her strong, muscular hands. "The reason we are willing to go to such great lengths is to protect what is precious to us…our families and friends, and the civilians who can't defend themselves. When I fight, when I go out on a dangerous mission, I do it with your face in my mind—because _you _are that precious thing that I will protect no matter the cost."

* * *

At the age of five, Sasori announced that he wanted to enter the Sand's Shinobi Academy. Although most children did not start at the Academy until the age of 7 or 8, Sasori passed the written entrance exam with flying colors. When the Head Jounin of the Academy asked him to attempt to mold his chakra, he did so, producing a faint blue glow around his body. All of the Chuunin and Jounin teachers agreed that he should be allowed into the Academy, and so he was. He was an eager learner, and mastered Henge and Bunshin before any of the other students. One day, upon coming home, he found Chiyo polishing something other than kunai and shuriken—a puppet the size of a full-grown man. Its limbs were made of a deep mahogany-colored wood, from the few trees that grew around the oases in the Country of Wind. "What is that?" Sasori asked in wonderment. Many of the children in the village loved to play with puppets, but he had never seen one so large and elaborate. Furthermore, this puppet had no strings.

"This is a battle-puppet, Sasori-kun," Chiyo said. "It is one of my ten most powerful that I have made with my own hands."

"A battle-puppet?"

Chiyo nodded. "It's made of wood and shaped into the form of a man, like an ordinary puppet, but it carries weapons and has traps hidden within it. Furthermore, it can be controlled by a shinobi to fight the enemies. Think of it as an artificial soldier."

"But how do you control it? How does it move without strings?"

"The strings that move this puppet are not made of rope, but of chakra. A skilled shinobi can extend chakra strings from his fingertips and use those to move the puppet."

"How do you do that? Can you teach me?"

Chiyo set the puppet down. "Well, the first step is to draw chakra into your fingertips. Then, extend it out from your fingertips in a long, thin strand. Like this!" Chiyo held up her hands, and glowing threads of blue chakra wound out from them and snaked their way through the air, attaching themselves to the head, hands, and feet of the puppet that lay on the table. Chiyo wiggled her fingers, and the puppet sat up, turned its head from side to side, raised its hands, and finally stood upright with the same agility as any human.

"Amazing!" Sasori breathed. Squeezing his eyes shut in concentration and taking a deep breath, Sasori gathered all his chakra into his fingertips and willed it to form the thin strands that Chiyo had said were necessary for chakra strings. He opened his eyes, and saw that there were indeed faint strings of chakra extending out a few inches from his fingertips. Running over to where his toy puppet lay on the floor, he guided the chakra strings to its limbs. Sasori twitched his fingers, and the puppet flopped into a standing position. It wavered unsteadily for a few seconds, then collapsed back to the floor as the chakra strings broke.

"Look, Grandmother! Look what I did!"

Chiyo smiled proudly at her grandson, then knelt down beside him and took his hands in her own. "That was wonderful, Sasori-kun! But the chakra strings have to be able to stretch a few feet to really control a battle-puppet. Here, let me show you how to make the strings longer…"

* * *

A/N: I'm almost finished with the second chapter, so I should be able to update soon. Thanks for reading! 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Honor Thy Parents 

A few years passed, and Sasori graduated from the Academy at the unprecedented age of eight. With the proud gazes of his parents and Chiyo upon him, he took his place beside his new teammates at the graduation ceremony. Both were older than him, but were thrilled to have "the Matsumoto genius" on their team. Their jounin sensei was an older shinobi with shaggy ebony hair and several scars across his rough face.

Heading home after their first day of training as full-fledged shinobi, Sasori and his teammates observed a man walking along the street in the opposite direction. He looked sullen, and there were dark circles under his eyes as though he hadn't slept in some time. There was a heavy-looking gourd strapped across his back, and he walked in a shuffling step with his eyes downcast. As they passed him, he looked up briefly, and Sasori gasped at the hopelessness and despair that filled the man's eyes. The shock made him stop in his tracks, but his teammates grabbed his sleeves and pulled him along.

"Who was that man?" he asked them in a whisper as they turned a corner. He noticed that they were glancing back over their shoulders nervously—almost as though they were afraid of the strange man.

"That is Hamanaka Miyoshi, the Bearer of Shukaku," said one of Sasori's teammates. His name was Igaya Asana, and he was nearly four years older than Sasori. He had sandy-colored brown hair and matching eyes. He was tall for his age, and towered over Sasori and their other teammate.

"Shukaku? You mean the demon that the Nidaime Kazekage sealed many years ago?" Everyone in the Sand knew that story. A powerful demon, one of the legendary nine bijuu, had attacked the village. Many people had been killed and the village nearly demolished before the Nidaime Kazekage had managed to seal it into a young child. This had happened a long time ago, even before Chiyo was born.

Sasori's other teammate, a round-faced girl named Sanara Kagaiya, nodded. "Eventually, the child that Nidaime-sama sealed Shukaku into grew into an old man. The village elders believed that Shukaku would die when the Bearer did, but they did not want to lose Shukaku's power. The first Bearer of Shukaku had been the strongest ninja in the village, surpassing even Nidaime-sama himself. So they decided to remove Shukaku from the first Bearer and seal it into another. Miyoshi was chosen for that task, and Shukaku was sealed into him."

Sasori was puzzled. "But then…why did he look so sad? Being chosen as an important protector of the village should be an honor."

"Well," explained Asana uneasily, "the sealing technique used to contain Shukaku within a human body is imperfect. When the Bearer's mental guards are down—when he's asleep, for example—Shukaku can exert some influence over him. That's why Miyoshi has dark circles under his eyes—he's afraid to sleep too deeply because he might lose his own identity to Shukaku."

"Also," Kagaiya chimed in, "being implanted with Shukaku changes a person. They become…almost bloodthirsty. For that reason, people used to be afraid of the first Bearer, and they fear Miyoshi too. He doesn't have friends…I don't think anyone wants to be around him."

For the rest of the way home, Sasori was lost in thought. It seemed unbearably cruel to condemn a man to such a lonely life. What must it be like to have another presence in the back of your mind, constantly threatening to overwhelm your own? And what must it be like to bear that burden totally alone, without being able to turn to anyone else for help or support? That evening at dinner, Sasori asked Chiyo if what Asana and Kagaiya had told him was true.

Chiyo nodded sadly. "Yes, Sasori-kun, it is true. The Bearer of Shukaku faces a difficult life. He has made a great sacrifice for the sake of this village."

"But…why? How can the village make a person go through that?"

"Because it is necessary. Shukaku is a powerful weapon, and we cannot afford to give it up."

"But Miyoshi is a _person_. How can this village treat him as just a weapon?"

"Sasori-kun, _all_ shinobi are weapons. Our purpose in life is to be tools that are used to protect the Country of Wind." Chiyo smiled, and ruffled Sasori's hair. "Please don't think about it anymore. You are young and shouldn't trouble yourself over such things."

But Sasori _did _trouble himself over it. The haunted look he had seen in Miyoshi's eyes still remained in his mind. Chiyo had always been such a kindly woman, acting like a second mother to him when his parents were so often absent on missions. For her to dismiss a man as just a tool of the village seemed completely unlike her. Had she always held such a ruthless way of thinking below her gentle exterior? _Is she right? Are shinobi really just tools…just puppets?_

* * *

In addition to training with his team, Sasori was learning how to control battle-puppets from Chiyo. He had become much more adept at using chakra strings. He was now able to guide complex movements in a puppet, such that it almost seemed to be using taijutsu. When he took his Chuunin Exam, he used a puppet that Chiyo had constructed as a gift for him for all his combat, defeating his opponents without ever using a jutsu or laying a finger on them. The Examiner declared him "a genius at unorthodox combat techniques" and recommended his promotion. The Sandaime Kazekage stated that he was "truly the descendant of the great Chiyo-baasama" and agreed. At ten years old, he was the youngest chuunin in the history of the Sand—even Chiyo had not achieved that rank until the age of twelve. He was also trying to learn how to build puppets of his own, but he had not yet succeeded at this. 

Relations between Sand and the Hidden Village of Stone had been poor for a number of years, and around that time a war between the two broke out. Chiyo earned even greater renown by using her ten most powerful puppets to singlehandedly take down one of Stone's major fortresses. Sasori and his team spent most of their time patrolling the borders of the Wind Country and engaging the smaller raiding parties sent by the Earth Country into Wind territory. Sasori now had five puppets—all made by Chiyo—at his command, and used these to great effect in numerous fights. His skill was so great that at the age of twelve, he was initiated into Sand's elite ANBU force.

Returning home after one particularly difficult mission, Sasori found a small crowd gathered outside his house. "What's going on?" he asked one of the people standing around. The young woman, a jounin of the Sand's forces, turned to look at him. He knew immediately from the expression on her face that something was terribly wrong. "What's going on?" he repeated.

Kneeling down in front of him, the jounin put her hands on Sasori's shoulders. "Sasori-san…a few days ago, your parents were on a scouting mission that was ambushed by Rock forces. I'm afraid…that they were both killed."

Sasori stood stock-still for a moment, too stunned to move or speak. Of course, shinobi undertook many missions of high risk, and such events were even less unexpected in a time of war. But that did not make dealing with the reality of such a loss any easier.

"Sasori-san, I'm so sorry," Asana said, laying a hand on Sasori's shoulder.

"Is Chiyo-baasama here? I want to see her."

The jounin nodded, still looking sad. "Yes, Sasori-san, she's inside."

Sasori entered his house, with Asana and Kagaiya trailing behind him. His family was gathered in the dining room. Chiyo, his other grandparents, and his aunts and uncles sat around the table, while various other relatives stood along the walls. Slowly, Sasori walked over to Chiyo, who embraced him tightly. Sasori tried desperately not to lose his composure in front of his teammates, but eventually found himself sobbing into Chiyo's shoulder. He heard running footsteps behind him, and felt the warmth against his back as Kagaiya and Asana rushed to comfort him as well.

* * *

Later, Sasori asked to see the bodies of his parents. Kagaiya and Asana had offered to go with him, but he preferred to do this alone. An idea was already forming in his mind, and he didn't think he would be able to go through with it if anyone was there to witness it. Despite all the amazingly powerful jutsus developed by medical nins, death was still permanent. Even the great Sarutobi of the Leaf could not bring the dead back to life. But Sasori thought he might be able to do the next best thing. 

Entering the morgue of Sunagakure's hospital, Sasori saw the two indistinct shapes, covered by sheets, that lay on tables in the center of the room. Pulling back the sheets, he gazed into his parents' faces. Chiyo had told him that puppets could be made not only out of wood, but also from the bodies of defeated enemies. The advantage of such a "human puppet" was that it contained the cells and DNA of the person it was made from, allowing the puppeteer to utilize jutsus unique to that person. Essentially, the human puppet acted as a medium through which the puppeteer could use jutsus he would not normally be able to perform. After placing a few seals across the door to insure that he would not be interrupted, Sasori set to work.

* * *

When Chiyo had first begun her career as a puppeteer, it had taken her many tries to craft a useful puppet. Her first few attempts had been crude, all rough edges with only a single weapon in each hand. By contrast, Sasori's first two puppets were perfect. His mother and father had been transformed into puppets that were nearly as good at fighting as their living incarnations had been. But in truth, fighting ability was not what Sasori cared about most. With this jutsu, it would be as though his parents had never died. 

Standing in the center of Chiyo's living room, Sasori extruded chakra strings from each hand. He attached those from his left hand to his father and the ones from his right hand to his mother. With subtle movements of his fingers, he guided the two puppets across the room towards him. When they stood on either side of him, he made them wrap their arms around him. In his parents' embrace once more, Sasori closed his eyes and smiled contentedly.

Then the chakra strings broke.

So involved in the comfort that came from being hugged by his parents again, Sasori had neglected to concentrate on maintaining the precise chakra control in his fingers. The two puppets released their grip on Sasori and clattered unceremoniously to the floor.

_These aren't my parents. My parents are dead. These are just tools, just puppets made to look like them. _Pain flooded through Sasori, and he willed himself not to cry. Looking down at the two puppets that lay at his feet, he thought, _Why? Why can't I be like that—no suffering, no feelings, no pain? Why must I have this human heart that aches so much?_

* * *

A/N: The next couple of chapters will probably come a little more slowly, since I'm going to be pretty busy with schoolwork over the next couple of weeks. I know there hasn't been much action so far--there will be a cool battle scene in Chapter 3, I promise! 


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3: The Last Straw_

Over the next year, Sasori made several more puppets, each more sophisticated than the last. The three that he was most proud of were Kuroari ("Black Ant"), Karasu ("Crow"), and Sanshouuo ("Salamander"). He was eager to try them out, and his wish was granted when his jounin sensei told the team that they would be embarking on a mission to protect a diplomat who was traveling to the Hidden Cloud Village to negotiate a possible alliance between the Country of Wind and the Country of Lightning. This would be a dangerous mission, he warned them, because the Hidden Stone Village vehemently opposed an alliance between the powerful Sand and Cloud villages, and might attempt to kidnap or assassinate Sand's diplomat.

The team met the diplomat at the outskirts of the Sand Village and began traveling along the road that led to the northern border of the Country of Wind. Sasori reminded Kagaiya and Asana to keep an eye out for enemies. They didn't expect much resistance while still within their own country—hiding in the flat, barren terrain of the Wind Country was nearly impossible—but it was always a good idea to remain vigilant.

"Heh, I can't wait to see those new puppets of yours in action, Sasori-san," commented Asana.

"Yeah, what did you add to them?" inquired Kagaiya.

"Oh, lots of things. A few traps, a couple of weapons. I'm pretty proud of them."

"It's a useful way to keep enemies at a distance, isn't it?" said Kagaiya. "You can let your puppets do the fighting for you, so there's less risk to yourself. Pretty smart."

"What's even better," Sasori said, warming to his topic, "is that a puppet can be repaired and improved as much as you want. If an enemy breaks it, you can fix it easily. And you can constantly add to it and make it more effective. A puppet can outlast its master. And to create a truly unique puppet is almost like making a work of art."

"You really do like your puppets, don't you?" said Asana with a laugh. "You almost sound like you'd rather have one of those by your side in a fight than a real person."

* * *

The trip went smoothly until they had reached the mountain range that bisected the Country of Lightning. The Hidden Village of Cloud was high in this mountain range, at the end of a narrow pass. Climbing the foothills was a slow process, mainly because the diplomat was an older civilian who could not move as fast as the four shinobi. "This is where things will get dangerous," their sensei warned them. "There are many places to hide here—enemies could be concealed anywhere. Do not let your guard down, even for a moment."

The four shinobi formed up around the diplomat—one in front, one on either side, and one behind. Asana bit his thumb and summoned a small lizard that scuttled ahead of the group, scouting out the path they planned to take. Entering a narrow divide between two cliffs that towered above them on either side, Kagaiya held up a hand to indicate that the group should stop. "Something's not right," she whispered.

"My summon hasn't detected any traps," Asana reminded her.

"What is it? Genjutsu?" Sasori asked.

"I think so." Kagaiya concentrated for a moment, then moved towards the right wall of the pass and proceeded slowly, running her hand along the wall. A few yards ahead of the point where she had noticed something odd, her hand slid right through the wall.

"It _is_ a genjutsu!" their sensei shouted. "Everyone, take up defensive positions!" Kagaiya's direct interaction with the genjutsu had broken the illusion, and a section of the rock wall melted away to reveal a passage that intersected with their own. Pressed against the sides of that passage were five Rock nins, all of whom had weapons drawn. One of them formed a series of seals with his hands, and spikes elongated out of the rock wall on either side of where Kagaiya stood. Quickly, she formed a seal progression of her own.

"Chakra Shield Technique!" she cried, and spread her hands out in opposite directions. Discs of chakra flowed around her hands, and though the rock spikes pushed against the shields, they could not break through.

Asana pulled his weapon from its sheath and sprang towards the Rock nins. He wielded an unusual weapon, a polearm with blades on both ends. He spun the weapon around, catching a Rock shinobi with each blade.

While his sensei moved back to protect the diplomat, Sasori pulled a scroll out of his backpack and used it to summon Sanshouuo. Quickly attaching chakra strings, Sasori yanked Sanshouuo's mouth open, and it spit forth several small darts, each one coated with poison. The three oncoming Rock ninja scattered, but one was hit in the leg with a dart. Crying out in pain, he fell to the ground, instantly immobilized.

The two remaining Rock shinobi rushed towards Sasori's sensei, hoping to defeat him quickly and kill the defenseless civilian behind him. Thinking quickly, Sasori detached a chakra string from Sanshouuo and flung it at one of the Rock ninja, wrapping it around his leg and tripping him. Then he sent Karasu flying towards the man. Unable to stand, the man fell prey to Karasu's poisoned blades.

Sasori's sensei had not been idle either. He executed a flurry of seals, and called, "Desert's Mouth Technique!" The ground under the final Rock ninja's feet softened and liquefied. Flailing hopelessly, the man was swallowed up by the quicksand-like morass, which smoothed out and solidified after he was gone. No trace was left to show that he had ever existed.

"Good job, everyone," their sensei said approvingly. "Is anyone…" He stopped speaking as a sixth Rock ninja emerged from the blank stone wall behind where Kagaiya was standing. Before anyone could say or do anything, he had reached around in front of her and cut her throat with a kunai.

"You bastard! I'll kill you for that!" screamed Asana, and leapt towards the shinobi.

"No, wait!" Sasori yelled. "There could be another one hidden!" Just as he said this, a second Rock ninja emerged from a nearby portion of the wall. Sasori launched Karasu towards him, but it was too late. The two Rock ninjas drew identical wakizashis and impaled Asana on them—one from in front, and one from behind.

With a cry of rage, Sasori summoned Kuroari and flung both Sanshouuo and Karasu at the Rock nins, positioning Kuroari behind them. Leaping backwards to escape the attacks of those two puppets, they stumbled into the open barrel that formed Kuroari's torso. The barrel closed around them, and with a savage grin, Sasori gestured to make Karasu's dagger-tipped limbs ram through the small slits in Kuroari's torso. The blades pierced the two ninja trapped inside Kuroari, ending their lives instantly.

The diplomat stood wide-eyed and trembling behind Sasori's sensei—who looked almost as surprised as the diplomat by the battle prowess Sasori had just displayed. Slowly, Sasori walked over to the bodies of his comrades, followed by his sensei and the diplomat. Kneeling beside them, Sasori felt for pulses and found that both were already dead. "Is there anything that can be done?" asked the diplomat, and Sasori shook his head silently.

Sasori's sensei put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sasori-kun," he said, and Sasori could tell that he was trying to keep a hold on his emotions—just as a good shinobi should. "You fought bravely, and avenged their deaths."

Sasori nodded, not feeling comforted at all. Asana could be brash and annoying at times, but there was no one Sasori would rather have watching his back. And Kagaiya—she had always been cheerful and upbeat, despite the difficult lives that shinobi led. She was eager to learn, was always confident about their ability to accomplish missions successfully, and could make Sasori laugh. She admired his strength, and he admired her optimistic spirit. For some reason, her loss was even more of a blow than Asana's death. _Why did they die? Sensei had to stay with the diplomat to protect him—taking out the enemies before they got that far was our job. Asana-san and Kagaiya-chan did all they could—it was _my _weakness that led to their deaths. My simple human weakness._

* * *

A ninja's body carried many secrets that an enemy could not be allowed to discover. For that reason, cremation was the traditional method for disposing of a ninja's remains. Kagaiya's and Asana's bodies were burned there in the pass, their forehead protectors first having been removed so that they could be returned to the young shinobis' parents. The bodies of six of the Rock nins were similarly destroyed, but an examination of the seventh revealed that he carried a bloodline ability. Sasori injected the corpse with a chemical that would prevent it from rotting, then sealed it into a scroll so that he could turn it into a human puppet later. After some discussion, Sasori and his sensei decided to continue with their mission to bring the diplomat to the Cloud Village. This close to the village, they were unlikely to face any more attacks—from here on out there would be Cloud shinobi guarding the territory, and they were unlikely to allow the Rock to come so close to their village.

After a week of sometimes difficult negotiations, the Sand diplomat and his Cloud counterpart managed to hammer out an alliance treaty between their two villages. Sasori and his sensei escorted the diplomat back to the Sand, where news of the alliance was greeted with joy. Sasori and his sensei, however, had a difficult duty to perform. They brought the news of Kagaiya's and Asana's deaths to their clans, and presented their bereaved parents with their forehead protectors. Both families were greatly saddened, but seemed to take some comfort from the fact that their children's sacrifice had allowed the mission to be successfully completed.

Sasori had no such comfort. In his mind, he was to blame for his teammates' deaths. If he had only been a little stronger, a little faster, they would have lived. If he had not been limited by the weaknesses of his body—a body that was still closer to that of a child than to that of a man—the three of them would be celebrating their victory now. As he looked around his laboratory at the completed and in-progress puppets lining the walls, he could not help but feel a certain sense of envy. A puppet was not bound by the limits of the flesh—it did not tire, was not weakened by extreme heat or cold, was immune to poison. Any injury to a puppet could be easily repaired. Weapons could be built into its body that surpassed the pathetic power of fists and feet. And of course, a puppet could not die. Had he been as invulnerable as one of his puppets on that day, Sasori knew he would have been able to save his teammates.

As he labored to turn the Rock ninja's corpse into a serviceable puppet, Sasori was barely aware of the tears that streamed down his face, but he was acutely aware of the sorrow he felt. As he had when his parents died, he lamented his emotional vulnerability. Shinobi were expected to be emotionless warriors who bore any loss with stoicism. Even the Leaf, whose practices were less draconian than those of the other Hidden Villages, had a saying: "A shinobi must possess a heart that never shows tears." But how could any human ever live up to such a standard? Sasori wished, more than anything in the world, that he could. In that moment, he envied not only his puppets' lack of physical weakness, but their lack of emotional weakness as well.

Over the next few weeks, Sasori spent most of his time in the Sand's great library, where scrolls and books detailing ancient jutsus were kept. The use of battle-puppets had a long and noble history in the Sand, and there were many books on the subject. After many long hours of research, Sasori believed he was ready to attempt a feat that no previous puppeteer had ever managed. It would be dangerous, but the rewards if he succeeded were great. _No pain, no fear, no sorrow. No need to fear injury or illness, or growing old. No more of this damnable human weakness._

* * *

Back in his laboratory, Sasori eyed the man-sized block of wood lying on a large workbench. Many different tools lay on a table to his left. On a smaller table to his right sat a bottle of liquid that he had mixed himself. That was the trickiest part of the whole operation, really. Sasori had years of experience making poison for his puppets, and he was used to the delicate measurements and precise procedures that were necessary to mix an effective poison. But this potion…if the proportions of the ingredients were off by even a tiny amount, he would die. Lifting a tool from the table on his left, Sasori began to carve the block of wood. As he worked, memories flitted through his mind—all the moments and events that had led up to this. First, he carved rough features into the block: general shapes of head, neck, torso, arms and legs, hands and feet. _"It's made of wood and shaped into the form of a man, like an ordinary puppet, but it carries weapons and has traps hidden within it. Furthermore, it can be controlled by a shinobi to fight the enemies. Think of it as an artificial soldier."…_

Taking up a smaller knife and using his chakra to shape the contour of the blade, Sasori began to carve finer details into the puppet. He gave the hands fingers with joints as supple as those in a real hand. The neck curved down from the chin to meet the shoulders, with a rounded knob in front to suggest an Adam's apple. The impression of pectoral muscles was carved into the chest. Arms and legs were turned on a lathe and pared down to the perfect shape and size. Still finer tools were used to create facial features—a small nose, perfectly shaped lips, bright and inquisitive eyes. _"Is she right? Are shinobi really just tools…just puppets?"…_

Sasori did not want this puppet to be a mere replica of a human body. He now began adding numerous improvements to make this puppet a deadlier weapon than any of his previous creations. He hollowed out the puppet's abdomen and installed a thick, strong cable with a short blade on the end. He concealed small jugs of flammable oil in the forearms, with pipes leading from the jugs and emerging from the palm of each hand. An igniter was placed inside of each thumb, turning both hands into flamethrowers. He attached poles to the back of each shoulder blade, with each pole carrying several blades that he had purchased from Sand's best swordsmith. The blades were as sharp and deadly as katanas, and the poles they were mounted on could be folded against the puppet's back and concealed under clothing. Finally—and most importantly—he carved out a small section on the upper left part of the puppet's chest, about where the heart would be in a human. "_Why? Why can't I be like that—no suffering, no feelings, no pain? Why must I have this human heart that aches so much?"…_

Next, Sasori added cosmetic touches to the puppet. He carefully attached thick, soft red threads to the skull to give the illusion of hair. The outer surfaces of the puppet were polished and painted the peachy-tan color of flesh. He gave the eyes the same vivid green color as his own. He covered the entire thing with a coat of shellac to keep the paint and polish from being scoured off by the swirling sand that was common in his village. _"You really do like your puppets, don't you? You almost sound like you'd rather have one of those by your side in a fight than a real person."…_

Now it was time for the most crucial part of this task. Picking up the vial of potion that he had made earlier, he drank half of it, then poured the rest into the mouth of the puppet. The concoction created a connection between his biological body and the puppet body lying on the workbench, splitting his mind and chakra between the two vessels. Sitting up within the puppet body, Sasori allowed his human body to slump to the floor. He formed a long and complicated series of seals, then placed his puppet hands on his human chest. The medical ninjutsu he was using would concentrate all of the chakra remaining in the human body into the heart, leaving the rest of the tissues to die. Working quickly, Sasori turned back to the table on which his tools sat. In addition to the woodworking tools that he had used to make the puppet, another set of tools sat untouched so far. These were surgical tools. _It was _my _weakness that led to their deaths. My simple human weakness. My physical weakness led to their deaths, and my emotional weakness forces me to feel the pain of that failure every day. No more. It ends here and now. _Selecting a scalpel, Sasori laid it against the chest of his human body, and began to cut.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4: Akasuna no Sasori_

The jounins in charge of Sand's ninja forces had exempted Sasori and his sensei from active duty for several weeks following the mission to Cloud. Partly, this was out of respect for the trauma they had suffered, and partly so that arrangements could be made for Sasori and his sensei to join another team. Sasori was grateful for this, because it gave him time to get used to his new body.

Sasori had disposed of his organic body so thoroughly that no trace would ever be found. All that remained of it was the heart, encased in a small cylinder and placed in a hollow he had carved in the chest of the puppet body. This one biological piece was necessary to contain his chakra and bind his mind and soul into the puppet. On the outside of the cylinder that enclosed his heart he had painted the kanji for his name. He told no one of what he had done, knowing that most would disapprove. Of course, they noticed that his stamina and endurance had increased greatly, but believed it was due to a combination of inborn genius and arduous training. The long-sleeved shirts and long pants that Sasori wore concealed the obvious joints on the puppet's arms and legs, as well as the improvements that Sasori had made to it. Beyond that, he had made the puppet so lifelike that its artificial nature was not apparent to observers. It was, he reflected, the greatest work of art he had ever created—a work of art so perfect that it could not be distinguished from flesh and blood.

Aided by his invulnerable new body, Sasori rose quickly through the Sand's ranks. Two years after the death of his teammates, Sasori was promoted to jounin rank. At fifteen, Sasori was younger than any previous jounin in the Sand's history. His three students were awed to be instructed by such a prodigy, and Chiyo professed her pride in him at every opportunity. His own former sensei, normally a reserved and unemotional man, smiled broadly at Sasori's promotion ceremony, happy to accept his most talented pupil as an equal.

Over the next year, Sasori lived an ordinary life for a shinobi. He taught his students, completed missions, defended his home village, attacked the Sand's enemies, and earned even greater renown. His collection of puppets swelled to over 50 in number, and his name became known throughout the five great shinobi countries. People said that he was equal to the Legendary Sannin of Konoha, and there were whispers that he might be chosen as the Yondaime Kazekage when Sandaime eventually retired. Through it all, no one—not even his own students—knew that Sasori was, for all intents and purposes, no longer human.

Until the day when Sasori discovered the truth about his parents' deaths.

* * *

Sasori was heading home from the training grounds, having spent most of the day teaching his genin students new jutsus. An ordinary person would have been tired and sore from sparring with three energetic, if inexperienced, youngsters. But Sasori was no longer an ordinary person anymore. It was a warm, clear night, and Sasori decided to find a place outside to sit and work on training schedules for his students. One of the local restaurants had a roof garden where customers could sit out under the stars and among the greenery. Having been shown to a seat at the corner of the roof, Sasori ordered a drink and took out the notes he had taken earlier on his students' progress. He would not consume the drink he had ordered, of course. He no longer had any need for food or drink. But it was only polite to order something if he was going to take up a seat. When the waiter had left, he could pour the drink into the potted plant next to his table.

Sasori spread out his notes over the table and divided them into three piles, one for each student. He was reading through the notes in Baki's pile when a conversation going on at the table on the other side of the potted plant caught his ear.

"How is your cousin's training going?"

"Oh, she's doing well. She has the best sensei in the village, after all."

"Matsumoto Sasori, right?"

"Yep. The puppetmaster genius himself. She's thrilled—she's hoping to learn puppet jutsu herself."

"Really? It seems like a very difficult fighting style to master."

"It is, but she'll be learning from the best—or close to it, anyway. I suppose Chiyo-baasama might still be better than Sasori at it, since she's been doing it longer."

"He learned puppetry from her, didn't he?"

"Yes—that's probably why he's so good at it."

"They seem very close."

"Well, yes, I suppose they would be. She did raise him after his parents were killed, after all."

"That was so terrible. I remember hearing about it…such a great sacrifice they made."

"I know…Being sent out on that mission, knowing they were walking into an ambush…"

"It was a trap to catch the Rock forces, right?"

"Yes. They were staying well hidden, camouflaged in the rock itself…you know that technique they have that lets them merge into rock? Well, anyway, they were practically undetectable. We knew they had people camped in that pass, waiting to attack anyone who came through, but there was no way to know how many or what their capabilities were. So the Matsumotos were sent into the pass, supposedly on a scouting mission. Their real job, of course, was to draw the Rock ninjas out of hiding, into the open. Once we were able to _see_ the Rock shinobi, it was easy to take them down…but the Matsumotos…well, they had no chance, really. In the end, we won, but…it was so horrible to have to pay that price for the victory…"

From that one part of him that was still human, emotions welled up in Sasori's mind. Remembered grief, and a burning fury more intense than anything he had ever felt before. His hand clenched into a fist so tight that the glass of sake he was holding shattered. He had always believed that his parents' deaths, while tragic, had been noble—they had been attacked by enemy forces, and had fought to the last breath for their lives and the lives of their companions. But it had not been like that at all. They had been _sent_ into that ambush like cannon fodder. Their superiors had sent them to their deaths as though they were pawns on a chessboard instead of human beings with families and friends who would mourn them. The Sandaime Kazekage had been the commander of that mission. The hero of the village, the most noble and powerful ninja in the Sand's history, the legendary wielder of the Iron Sand…_he _had killed Sasori's parents as surely as if he had cut their throats with a kunai. And even worse was the fact that _no one had ever told him_. No one had ever told him that his parents had been sacrificed as though their lives didn't matter. Hell, those two people at the other table were talking about it matter-of-factly, as though there was nothing wrong with it. Even when his sorrow had driven him to give up his humanity, Sasori had always believed in the righteousness and nobility of the Sand's ninja creed. He had idolized Chiyo and admired Sandaime. Tragedies happened in the life of a shinobi, but they were perpetrated by outsiders, enemies from other villages who tried to invade or attack the Sand. Yet now it seemed that one of the greatest tragedies in his life, this act of evil, had been carried out not by foreign enemies—not by missing-nins or shinobi from Leaf or Rock or Mist—but by his own people.

_I've fought for these people, bled for them, risked my life for them. People like Asana-san and Kagaiya-chan sacrificed their lives for them. All the time, we believed that these people were worthy of those sacrifices, worthy of our efforts and our lives. _I _always believed that. I risked my life for them, thinking that they would have done the same for me if our positions had been reversed. But they've betrayed me in the worst way possible—_and they never even had the guts to tell me so. _I've endured so much, because Sandaime-sama told me it was necessary, that my blood and sweat and tears were needed to protect the village. And I trusted him, because he was the Sandaime Kazekage—the beloved leader and protector of our village. But he sent my parents to die—and none of these people that I've bled and fought for ever bothered to tell me. Well, fuck them all—I'm done with them!_

Sasori got up from his seat so quickly that his chair fell over backwards and crashed to the floor. He strode out of the restaurant, down the street, and into his laboratory. He had been making improvements to Karasu, Sanshouuo, and Kuroari, and they lay disassembled and scattered around the room. Not wanting to take the time to put them back together, Sasori left them where they were. He gathered up the rest of his scrolls—except for those which contained the puppets he had made of his parents. He had not touched those since that time long ago when they had fallen to the floor on either side of him and he had realized that they were really dead. He tossed the rest of the scrolls into a backpack, along with a generous assortment of kunais, shuriken, and vials of poison. He went upstairs to his bedroom and threw a few sets of clothes and his wallet into the backpack on top of the scrolls. He left the door ajar when he exited the building—he didn't intend to ever come back. He just had one stop to make before he left Sunagakure forever. The Sandaime Kazekage apparently believed that shinobi should be mindless puppets that moved the way they were told to, fought when they were told to, and died when they were told to. Well, that was just fine—he could try _being_ a puppet and see how he liked it.

* * *

Sasori scaled the wall of the Kazekage's residence and slipped in through a window unnoticed. Despite the late hour, the Kazekage was training in his private dojo. Standing at one end of the large, high-ceilinged room, he caused a pile of sand on the floor to rise up into the air. Unlike ordinary sand, this particular sand was a dull grayish-black color—the hallmark of the Iron Sand that was the Kazekage's specialty. Slowly, the blobs of sand formed into sharp, needle-like shapes. The Kazekage gestured, and the sand needles flew through the air, impaling several dummies that stood in a line at the other end of the dojo.

Sasori knew that the Kazekage's ability to manipulate magnetic fields could be dangerous to him. Many of his puppets had metal weapons, and the blades on his back and the cable in his stomach contained metal. He would have to find some way to neutralize the Iron Sand technique. Closing his eyes, he molded his chakra carefully to surround the metal parts of his body. The shields lay tight against the metal surfaces, forming a barrier between them and any outside influences like the Kazekage's jutsu. It required incredibly precise chakra control to do this—if he hadn't spent years making chakra strings, he probably wouldn't have managed it.

The Kazekage clearly detected the telltale signs of someone molding chakra, because he turned towards the shadowy corner where Sasori stood. "Hello, Sasori-san," he said, apparently unconcerned by Sasori's unannounced entrance.

Sasori didn't feel like beating around the bush. "Why?"

The Kazekage cocked his head to one side, shooting Sasori a puzzled look. "Why what?"

"Why did you send my parents to die? And why did you never tell me you did it?"

An expression that might have been regret crossed the Kazekage's face. "It was the only way to make the Rock nins reveal themselves so that we could destroy them. And…I suppose I didn't tell you because I thought it would only add to your pain. Losing both your parents, and later your teammates, must have been hard—I didn't want to make you suffer even more."

"Why them? Why couldn't you have sent a couple of Kage Bunshins, or a summoned animal?" The sorrow he saw on the Kazekage's face didn't lessen the rage that threatened to overwhelm Sasori's normal cool demeanor. On the contrary, it made him even angrier. What right did the Kazekage have to act as though _he _was the one suffering?

The Kazekage shook his head. "Believe me, I considered those options. But the Rock shinobi would have seen through clones, and they wouldn't have revealed themselves for a scout animal. They had to believe that they had _already_ been discovered. Sasori-san, I know it must be hard for you to hear this, but this is the way of the ninja. An individual life is subordinate to the well-being of the village and country as a whole. Each ninja is a tool that forms one part of the impenetrable defense of the Sand."

"Just tools? Is that what you really believe? That an individual life has no worth on its own, but only as part of the whole?" Another thought struck him. "Does _Chiyo_ know what you did? Does she know that you sacrificed her son and daughter-in-law as though their lives meant nothing?"

The Kazekage actually looked unnerved, as though he knew Sasori would not like the answer he was about to give. "Chiyo-baasama understands the way of the ninja. Although she mourned for your parents, she knew that their sacrifice was necessary."

_That_ was not what Sasori had expected to hear. That Chiyo not only knew about what the Kazekage had done, but _condoned_ it, was unthinkable. _Dear gods above! For all this time, I've been trying to rid myself of the human emotions that caused me so much pain. I've even altered my body for that cause. But her heart is even colder than mine! _After learning of the Kazekage's betrayal, Chiyo had been the only person for whom Sasori had any respect left. Surely _she_ was ignorant of what he had done, or if she knew, was outraged. But she had been just as complicit in it as anyone else. Not a single person in the Sand—not a single damn one of them, not even his own grandmother—was worthy of his protection or emotion. If no one's lives meant anything to them, why should _theirs_ mean anything to him?

Without a word, Sasori formed a thin blade of chakra around one hand and cut through the front of the maroon shirt he wore, then shrugged it off. As it fell away, the Kazekage gasped at the obviously inhuman body that lay beneath. "Sasori-san…you…"

Flexing the blade-wings on his back, Sasori allowed the cable in his stomach to uncoil, then made it shoot out towards the Kazekage. The older shinobi formed a quick seal progression with his hands, intending to use his magnetic abilities to deflect it or turn it back against Sasori. His eyes widened in surprise when the bladed cable continued on its course towards him, and he dodged at the last moment. With a casual gesture, he flung the iron sand needles lodged in the dummies towards Sasori. Sasori raised a hand to protect his single vulnerable point, and the needles bounced harmlessly off his hardened body.

The Kazekage held one arm extended out in front of himself, his hand curled loosely as though he was holding something. "Desert Coffin!" he declared as he closed his hand into a fist, and Sasori saw the iron sand needles dissolve into an amorphous mass that began curling around his legs. Pointing his palms downward, he released jets of flame from the pipes in his hands, melting the sand into glass. The brittle tendrils of glass broke easily when he kicked them, freeing his legs. With a flick of his own fingers, he attached chakra strings to the wooden practice swords lining the walls of the dojo and sent them whipping towards the Kazekage. As expected, the man dodged all of them—but he failed to notice the coil of cable behind him, and placed his left foot neatly inside the loop. Sasori smiled slightly as he tightened the cable around the Kazekage's ankle, and pulled the man directly towards the deadly blade-wings that rotated on his back. At the last moment, the Kazekage raised a shield of iron sand between himself and the blades. Sparks flew as the two surfaces ground against each other.

Flinging the Kazekage away, Sasori pulled out a scroll and summoned one of his newer puppets. Unlike most of the others, this one had no metal parts and used wooden senbon needles for weapons. "Hidden Rain Secret Technique: Destructive Torrent!" Sasori exclaimed, and panels slid away from the puppet's chest, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of needles housed within. Spinning in a circle, the puppet fired needles in all directions. They did no more harm to Sasori than to scratch the outer coating of shellac on his body, but in the enclosed room, the Kazekage could not escape them. Once again he raised a shield of iron sand, but Sasori had attached chakra strings to a few of the needles, and guided them around the shield as it rose. A slight hiss from behind the shield indicated that at least one of them had hit. Sasori waited, leaning back idly against the wall, knowing that the battle was effectively over.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, the shield collapsed to the floor, revealing the Kazekage kneeling behind it. "What…I feel dizzy…I can't mold chakra…"

Sasori smirked. "Of course. You've been poisoned."

"Poisoned…?"

"All of those needles were coated with poison. I made it myself, and I assure you it is quite effective. If I leave you here, you will die in three days."

"In that time…our medical ninjas could make an antidote…"

"Perhaps…if I intended to leave you here. I don't."

"Sasori…if you kill the Kazekage…you will be killed or exiled…"

"No one in this village could kill me, and I intend to leave the Sand anyway." Walking over to the Kazekage, Sasori wrapped chakra strings around the man's neck. "If you really believe that each individual life is subordinate to the whole, you should not object so much. After all…one life in revenge for two is fair." Jerking his hand back, Sasori viciously tightened the chakra strings. The Kazekage pulled out a kunai and struck Sasori's leg with it, which had absolutely no effect. More out of annoyance than anything else, Sasori kicked the kunai away, breaking the Kazekage's hand in the process. When the Kazekage fell limp at his feet, Sasori sealed his body into a scroll, returned the needle-puppet to its scroll, and left the building through the same window that he had come in by.

* * *

Out in the desert, Sasori made the initial preparations necessary to turn the Kazekage's body into a human puppet: he removed the internal organs, drained the blood from the veins, and treated the corpse so it would not rot. Then he sealed it back into its scroll, and continued on his way towards the border of the Wind Country. Around him, the sand shone red in the light of the rising sun.

* * *

A/N: Whew, that was the longest chapter yet! Next up: Sasori joins the Akatsuki.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A Meeting with the Snake 

In a small town in the Earth Country, Sasori carried the tools he had just purchased back to his rented room. In every country, there were towns like this one where a traveler could obtain whatever he needed to without answering awkward questions. Here, no one asked why a boy who appeared to be about 14 years old was traveling alone. No one asked why he needed the tools he had just bought, or why all the meals sent to his room were returned untouched. The man who ran the lodging house had simply accepted the money Sasori gave him and handed him a key with a room number written on it. No one had even asked his name.

Locking the deadbolt on his door, Sasori retrieved the Kazekage's body from its scroll and began turning it into a true human puppet. He really didn't have any idea what he was going to do now that he had left the Sand. As soon as they discovered that he was gone and the Kazekage was missing, they would probably put two and two together. He would be declared a missing-nin, and a hefty bounty would be placed on his head. He supposed he could join one of the other Hidden Villages. Any of the Sand's enemies would be happy to accept a turncoat with valuable information about the Sand. But Sasori didn't really want to become part of another shinobi village. His acquaintances in the first one he lived in had disappointed him so badly, and he had no reason to suspect that any of the other villages were any better.

Sitting in the local bar that night, pretending to sip his drink, Sasori heard two other missing-nin at a nearby table discussing their own plans. They were originally from the Hidden Village of Grass, and they had heard that a young up-and-coming shipping magnate named Gato needed a few unscrupulous thugs to scare a local feudal lord into allowing him exclusive shipping rights within the lord's territory. Gato was rapidly gaining in wealth and power, apparently due to the fact that he didn't mind fighting dirty when necessary. This particular feudal lord didn't like the way Gato did business, and had refused to reach an agreement with him. Gato had decided that the lord would be more likely to see things his way if a beloved cousin of his had an unfortunate "accident." The cousin in question had a few bodyguards that might be difficult to deal with, which was why Gato was looking for ninja to do the job for him.

The next day, Sasori set out for a club that Gato owned. He had used Henge to make himself look significantly older, with shaggy brown hair and a grizzled, battle-scarred appearance. In short, he looked exactly the way Gato would expect a fearsome missing-nin to look. Entering the club, he was immediately assaulted by loud music and the smell of many people packed into a small space. Wending his way between the tables, he headed toward a private room at the back of the club. Two burly bodyguards standing at the door of the room looked him over, and one said, "Sorry. Gato-sama is busy now. Come back later."

"I have heard that Gato-sama has requested assistance in…convincing…an opponent to become an ally. I would be most happy to provide that assistance." Sasori didn't really care about Gato's business ambitions (he sounded like a rather petty man), but working for Gato would at least allow him to obtain money for clothing and a place to live…and with any luck, he might be able to kill some ninja and expand his puppet collection.

The bodyguard grunted. "Well, that's true enough. But you better be capable of doing it—Gato-sama doesn't approve of failure." He pushed the door open and Sasori stepped through.

The room was dimly lit, and Gato sat at a round table, eating his evening meal. Two rather scantily-clad women sat on either side of him, and two more bodyguards, just as muscle-bound as the ones outside, stood back in the shadows. Sasori bowed slightly and said, "Gato-sama, I have been told that you are in need of assistance in dealing with a recalcitrant feudal lord. I am here to offer my services in that regard."

"Hmm…and what is your name?" Gato was a short man with bushy brown hair and glasses that obscured his tiny eyes.

"I am Tsunenari Agakai, originally from the Hidden Village of Rain," Sasori said. This was, of course, an alias—but Gato probably knew that. Sasori doubted that Gato knew the real name of a single one of the missing-nin who worked for him.

"Hmm…and what skills do you have?"

"I am skilled in…unusual combat techniques. I reached the rank of ANBU Squad Captain in my former village."

"Heh, every missing-nin says that. The question is, are you really as good as you say?" This must have been some pre-arranged verbal cue, because the two bodyguards suddenly darted out of the shadows and moved to flank Sasori. The dim lights in the room glinted off the kunai they held in their hands. Before they could come within two feet of him, Sasori had wound chakra strings around their arms and legs, and maneuvered them to a position in front of him. Twitching his fingers, he forced them to raise their kunai to each others' throats.

Gato laughed and clapped his hands appreciatively. "Well done, well done! I can see you're a level above most of the wretches who work for me. Fine, I'll give you the job. Now let these fine young men go, have a drink with me, and we can talk money.

* * *

A week later, the feudal lord's cousin was dead, the feudal lord himself had caved in to Gato's demands, and a delighted Gato had presented Sasori with a briefcase full of money. He had also offered Sasori permanent employment working for him. Sasori had accepted—at least until some better opportunity presented itself. Gato was a punk who ruled through fear and intimidation, but Sasori didn't really mind. Compassion and moral qualms had been buried as deeply as all his other emotions. As long as he could engage in stimulating battles and add to the ranks of his collection, he was happy.

One night, he was sitting at a table in the same bar where he had first heard of Gato. He had recently obtained a new corpse to turn into a human puppet, and was contemplating what improvements he should add to it—chakra shields perhaps?—when he became aware that someone had sat down across from him. Occasionally he had to deal with some drunken idiot who wanted to pick a fight, or fend off advances from intoxicated young women, but this person didn't look like he fell into either of those categories. In fact, Sasori couldn't immediately tell what the person looked like or what gender he was. He wore a broad-brimmed hat that concealed the upper part of his face, and the lower part of his face was hidden by the high collar of the robe he wore. It was black, with red clouds embroidered on it. The man's hands, which rested on the table in front of him, were white as chalk, and his nails were painted purple. On one finger, he wore a ring with a kanji on it.

"Good evening, Matsumoto Sasori-san," the man said in a smooth voice. Although pleasant in tone, that voice was somehow disturbing. If the Death God had a voice, it might sound something like this.

Sasori immediately stiffened. He was currently disguised by a Henge no Jutsu. If this man had seen through that, he was obviously a ninja. "I'm sorry, sir. My name is Tsunenari Agakai—you must have mistaken me for someone else."

The man laughed, and his laugh was even more disturbing than his voice. "No, Sasori-san, I am not mistaken. You are the puppetmaster genius of Sunagakure. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Orochimaru, former Sannin of Konoha." He lifted his hat off, and Sasori saw that the man was indeed the infamous Orochimaru. His face was as pale as his hands, and his eyes had vertical pupils, like those of a cat or a snake. Although he had abandoned Konoha years ago, he still wore his Leaf forehead protector—but there was a horizontal slash through the Leaf symbol.

"What do you want with me?" Under the table, Sasori withdrew a scroll from his pocket, prepared to fight Orochimaru if his intentions were hostile.

"Why are you working for that brat Gato?"

Sasori blinked. He hadn't really expected _that_. "He pays me," he said, shrugging.

Orochimaru flashed him a grin that could probably make children run away screaming in terror. "And is money really all you care about? You could kill Gato and every missing-nin working for him in about ten seconds if you wanted to. Why do you take orders from him?"

Sasori shrugged again. "I'm a missing-nin. My village probably has dozens of hunter-nins searching for me. I might as well keep a low profile and make some money until I think of something better to do with the rest of my life."

Orochimaru's grinned widened—now it could make grown men run away screaming. "What if I gave you something better to do with it?"

"Such as?"

"Such as fighting some of the most powerful opponents in the world. Such as obtaining enough power that you need not fear anyone, enough power that you can do anything you want and no one will be able to stop you."

Sasori considered that for a few moments. Certainly he would like to test the abilities of his body and his puppets against stronger opponents than the pathetic excuses for ninja that Gato had him fighting. And gaining power was not something that he was opposed to either. "How would you suggest that I go about doing that?" he asked.

Orochimaru settled back in his chair, looking uncomfortably like a snake that had just spotted a particularly plump mouse. "I represent a certain organization known as Akatsuki. We are a group of S-ranked missing-nins who have abandoned our villages to escape the constraints they placed upon us."

"And what does this organization do? If each of you is so powerful individually, why band together at all?"

"You are familiar with the story of the nine bijuu, I presume?"

Sasori nodded, remembering the long-ago day when he and his teammates had encountered the Bearer of Shukaku. He remembered the look of hopelessness in the man's eyes, and the way Kagaiya and Asana had seemed afraid of him. He also remembered later occasions when he had seen that man fight, and how he had decimated all his enemies with the awesome power of the demon sealed within him.

"The founder of the Akatsuki has developed a jutsu that allows for a bijuu to be extracted from its host and implanted into someone else. This sealing technique is much more refined than the ones the villages have developed. It does not allow the demon to exert any influence over the host's mind, but the host can still access its power." He leaned closer to Sasori across the table, and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. "The power of a bijuu is unimaginable. A person with such a demon sealed inside him would have a near-infinite chakra supply, his aging would be slowed, and he might gain other abilities as well. The Shukaku, for example, gives its host the ability to control sand, and the host of the Yamata no Orochi becomes immune to all forms of poison. There are nine bijuu, and currently seven members of Akatsuki. We are seeking an eighth and ninth member…one for each bijuu."

"You want to capture all the bijuu, and put one into each member," Sasori said. "But you still haven't explained why you are working together for this goal."

"Hmm…well, the technique used to transfer the bijuu from one host to another requires the power and resonance of the bijuu's chakra to be matched exactly during the transfer. It requires multiple people to do this."

"And you want me to be the eighth member?"

Orochimaru's eyes gleamed, and he clenched one white hand into a fist. "Your deeds are legendary. You were the youngest chuunin and jounin in the Sand's history, you created an army of puppets that is nearly invincible…and if I'm not mistaken, you defeated the Sandaime Kazekage. You are worthy of membership in the Akatsuki. And with a bijuu bound to you, you would have such power that even your current strength pales in comparison."

Sasori put one elbow on the table, leaned his chin on his fist, and pondered for a few minutes. It wasn't such a difficult decision, really. Capturing the bijuu would require difficult battles that would both provide a challenge for him and allow him to expand his collection. And when his bijuu was captured and implanted into him, his power would grow exponentially. He had an endless lifespan stretching out in front of him, and this seemed like as good a way to spend some of it as anything else. "What must I do to join you?"

Orochimaru got that look in his eyes again, as though he was a snake that had snared a mouse in its coils. "A conference of the other members must be called, and they must all accept you as one of us. Considering your past deeds, I don't think that will be a problem."

"When and where?"

"I'll send a messenger to you in two days to tell you the location." Replacing his hat on his head, Orochimaru got up and left. Sasori remained at the table for a long while after.

* * *

Two days later, Sasori looked up from the puppet he was working on to see a small grass snake curled around the chair on the opposite side of the table. It held a scroll in its coiled tail. With a hiss, it flipped the scroll into the air and vanished in a puff of smoke. Sasori caught the scroll and opened it. It named a date one week in the future and a place in the dangerous no-man's-land between the Rain and Fire countries.

Sasori arrived at the appointed place on the designated day, and found himself in the center of a small mountain range. He stood on a narrow ledge over a ravine so deep that he could not see the bottom. Next to the ledge, a jagged cliff rose up for several hundred feet. Just getting to this place would have been an extraordinarily difficult journey for even a skilled shinobi. There was no trail, and harsh winds often threatened to push any traveler off of the narrow ledge into the ravine below. Sasori scanned the ledge—it seemed completely deserted. Narrowing his eyes, he molded his chakra and slapped a palm against the cliff face. "Release!" The cliff face seemed to waver slightly, confirming Sasori's suspicion that a genjutsu hid the true meeting place. Walking over to where the wavering effect had been the strongest, Sasori summoned one of his human puppets. The puppet had once been a foolhardy hunter-nin from the Sand who had recognized and attacked Sasori while he was completing a mission for Gato. This particular hunter-nin was a genjutsu specialist who could dispel almost any illusion. Under Sasori's guidance, the puppet brought its hands together in a complex series of seals—the All-Seeing Eye Technique. The cliff face wavered again, and this time the illusion fell away completely, revealing the entrance to a tunnel. Sasori stepped inside tentatively, keeping the puppet in front of him. He had it form another series of seals, the Light of Heaven Technique. Small blue flames arose at several points on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the tunnel, marking the locations of hidden traps. Carefully avoiding these, Sasori followed the tunnel until it opened out into a huge cave. Nine torches lit the walls of the cave, and figures stood under all the torches but two.

"Welcome, Sasori-san," said Orochimaru softly. "We are the Akatsuki."

Sasori surveyed the other members. One was tall and muscular, with blue skin and gills under his eyes. Another had long blond hair that covered one eye. A third seemed to have a plant growing out of his shoulders, and one half of his face was jet-black, while the other half was as white as Orochimaru's. The remaining two were standing squarely in the shadows left by the torches' light, so Sasori couldn't get a good look at them.

"_This _is the candidate you've found, Orochimaru-san? He's just a child, yeah!" blustered the blond-haired member. He pointed at Sasori, and Sasori saw that there was a mouth on the palm of his hand. Not a tattoo or drawing of a mouth, but an actual living one, complete with teeth and a tongue that stuck out at him petulantly.

Orochimaru's voice remained calm, but his eyes narrowed and it was clear that he was annoyed. "He was the youngest chuunin and jounin in the Sand's history. He is widely regarded as a genius, and defeated the Sandaime Kazekage in combat. He may be young, but he is worthy of us, Deidara-san."

"This boy? No kid that young can be the equal of us, yeah!" Sasori thought this was a rather hypocritical thing to say, since Deidara didn't look like he was far beyond his own teenage years.

"Well, Sasori-san, it looks like you have a challenger. What are you going to do?" This came from the blue-skinned man.

"Is there a sparring area in this complex? If Deidara-san doubts my strength, he is more than welcome to a demonstration." Sasori's voice remained completely level, and his face betrayed no change in expression. Another man might have been enraged by such a blatant challenge, but Sasori had long ago decided that anger only made one more likely to do something stupid.

"If you're going to fight Deidara-san, we'd better use the outdoor sparring area, or half the base will get destroyed," said the blue-skinned man, pointing to a tunnel that led out of the main cavern. Sasori and Deidara followed this tunnel for some time, with the rest of the Akatsuki members trailing behind them. The tunnel ended in a door leading to a broad plateau that seemed to be on the exact opposite side of the mountain from the ledge that Sasori had entered the base from.

Sasori and Deidara faced each other at the center of the plateau, while the other Akatsuki members remained clustered near the entrance to the base. Sasori pulled out a scroll, and at the same time Deidara darted one hand into a pack that was strapped to his waist. Sasori summoned the puppet sealed within the scroll, and Deidara's hand-mouth spat out a small clay sculpture of a bird. _What the bloody hell is _that Sasori wondered.

This question was quickly answered as Deidara formed a seal, and the bird expanded to the size of a small tree. Deidara hopped on its back, and it took off into the air, hovering above the plateau.

"Are you just going to run away, then?" asked Sasori. Deidara seemed to have a temper, and taunting him might provoke him into making a mistake.

"No, I just don't want to have to deal with your pesky attacks while I kill you, yeah," Deidara responded with a grin.

Sasori forcefully subdued his anger. No one had ever had the nerve to call his puppet army _pesky_ before. Amazing, yes. Terrifying, yes. Pesky? Hell no. However, he was going to need a different strategy than the one he had originally planned on. While he summoned a second puppet, Deidara's hand spat out another bird. It swooped down and perched on the shoulder of the first puppet Sasori had summoned. It chirped happily—and then exploded.

Sasori dodged the blast as pieces of the puppet fell around him. _Now I know why that blue member said the base would get destroyed if we fought indoors._ Luckily, the second puppet had escaped the explosion, and was much better for long-range combat. Sasori made it form a distinctive seal, and named it for Deidara's benefit: "Calling the Rain Technique!" Clouds formed in the sky overhead, and it began to rain.

"Am I supposed to be afraid of a little rain?" scoffed Deidara, and lobbed another bird-bomb at Sasori.

Sasori dodged the bomb, then formed another seal with the puppet. "Aquarian Needles Technique!" The drops of rain falling from the sky elongated into deadly needles that rained down (literally) onto Deidara and his bird.

"Ack!" Deidara cried, bringing his arms up to shield his face. He threw several clay shapes at the puppet. These were not birds, but spiders. They spun long strands of silk—no, chakra—which wrapped the puppet up tightly. Once the puppet was immobilized, they exploded.

Sasori tried to reach into his pocket for another scroll, and discovered that he couldn't move his arm. The spiders had landed on him too, and were spinning him up in a web of chakra. He knew it was only a matter of time before they too exploded. He sighed. _I guess I'm going to have to show it to them._ He unfurled the blade-wings from his back, cutting through the chakra strings that bound him. He knocked the spiders off of him, and they exploded harmlessly in the air.

The blade-wings had cut the back of his shirt to pieces, and what was left of it fell off, revealing his puppet body. "What…the hell?" said the blue-skinned man in an amazed voice. Deidara's eyes narrowed and his lips compressed to a thin line.

The cable shot out from Sasori's stomach, and soared upward towards the bird that Deidara rode on. It twined around the bird's ankle, which oddly did not seem to bother Deidara too much. He urged the bird upward, and Sasori found himself lifted off the ground—he weighed much less than a giant bird, after all. He retracted the cable into his stomach, pulling himself up towards the bird. This _did _seem to bother Deidara, and Sasori thought he knew why: Deidara disliked close combat and was probably weak in it. And he couldn't blow up the bird without killing himself as well as his opponent. Sasori landed nimbly on the bird's back, and opened fire with the flamethrowers embedded in his palms. Deidara stumbled backward and, seeing no other escape, dove over the bird's tail and began plummeting to the ground. It was a fifty-foot drop, but that wasn't as hazardous to a ninja as it would be to an ordinary person. He began to bring his hands together, and Sasori realized what he was planning to do just in time. He jumped off the bird just before it exploded, and he felt the blast pressing him downward. He could feel the massive fireball at his back, and knew that if he had still been human, he would have been badly burned. As it was, he accelerated down towards Deidara, who was still falling. The cable in his stomach whipped out once again, and Deidara was unable to dodge it in midair. It wrapped around him, pulling the two shinobi closer together. As Deidara came up to meet him, Sasori released the cable and punched Deidara hard in the face. It was a rather inelegant move, but effective. Deidara's head snapped back, and Sasori heard the small bones in his nose crack. Deidara slammed into the ground hard, and Sasori landed lightly next to him. Turning slightly to the side, Sasori positioned himself so that one of the blades on his back was just under Deidara's chin. As the tip of the blade-wing pressed into his throat, Deidara said, "You're strong, yeah. Damn, I hate to admit this, but…you win, kid…yeah."

* * *

After that display, none of the other members had any objections to Sasori's joining the Akatsuki. Back in the central room with the torches, Orochimaru presented Sasori with an Akatsuki robe, a ring, and a small bottle of nail polish. He also explained the significance of each item: "The name 'Akatsuki' means 'red moon', and the design on the robes represents a night sky with the clouds lit by such a moon. The rings we wear are bound by a special jutsu that allows us to coordinate our chakra output when extracting one of the bijuu from its host. Purple has historically been the color of royalty and power, so we paint our nails with that color to represent our superiority over all other shinobi."

Orochimaru also reached up and untied Sasori's forehead protector, holding it up in front of him. "All the members of Akatsuki have forsaken our former villages, and we declare that broken allegiance openly." Understanding what was expected of him here, Sasori took out a kunai and crossed out the Sand symbol on the forehead protector. Orochimaru nodded approvingly, then handed it back to Sasori.

All of the Akatsuki members had once again formed a circle, standing under the torches on the wall. Now each one stepped forward and formally introduced himself to Sasori.

"I am Kumomoto Orochimaru, formerly of Konohagakure, now of Akatsuki."

"I am Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of Kirigakure, now of Akatsuki."

"I am Ichinose Deidara, formerly of Iwagakure, now of Akatsuki."

When all of the members had made this formal introduction, they stood waiting expectantly. Sasori thought about how to return the greeting. His given surname was Matsumoto, but that name represented a life that he had left behind long ago. He remembered the way the rising sun had turned the desert to the color of fresh blood on the morning when he left the Sand Village forever, and decided.

"I am Akasuna no Sasori, formerly of Sunagakure, now of Akatsuki."

* * *

A/N: Wow, my chapters keep getting longer and longer, don't they? As far as I know, the manga hasn't given last names for Oro and Deidara, so I made up their last names for this fic. I'll be away from this coming weekend to the next weekend, so depending on when I get Chapter 6 finished, the story will be updated in either a few days or about 2 weeks from now. I hope you're all still enjoying the story! 


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6: By the Light of a Red Moon_

Whenever the Akatsuki left the base on a mission, they did so in pairs. Sasori was partnered with Orochimaru. Orochimaru was a jutsu specialist, whose goal was to attain immortality and then to learn all the jutsus in existence. He also worked on developing new jutsus for the Akatsuki to use, an endeavor with which Sasori helped him. Together, they developed a technique that allowed an Akatsuki member to "possess" a subordinate, giving that subordinate the member's appearance and the ability to use most of their jutsus. A possessed minion could be remotely controlled by the Akatsuki member, allowing them to combat enemies from a safe distance.

Sasori and Orochimaru also developed a hypnotic genjutsu that allowed one of them to mentally control a subordinate without that person's knowledge. Such a person would be the perfect spy, and Sasori and Orochimaru sent several to each of the five great shinobi countries.

The Akatsuki had numerous underlings, many of whom were mind-controlled by Sasori using this jutsu. An even greater number served the Akatsuki willingly, out of a desire for money and power. There were also three young shinobi whose path to the Akatsuki was more interesting. In many parts of the world, individuals with advanced bloodlines were feared and hated. Some clans would go so far as to exile or kill a child who showed signs of an advanced bloodline. Occasionally, one of the Akatsuki members stumbled across such a child who had been cast out by his or her family. In three instances, the Akatsuki took these children in, recognizing that their powerful abilities would be a great asset to the organization—as would their unquestioning loyalty towards the people who had saved them. Sawada Tobi was found in this manner by Zetsu, Kataoka Akisane by Deidara, and Kaguya Kimimaro by Orochimaru. Of these four, Tobi's bloodline limit was perhaps the most powerful: he could see a short way into the future. He wore a mask with only one eyehole, for only one of his eyes saw the world before him. The other eye was always looking forward, seeing things not as they were but as they would be. Most of the time, he could only see a few seconds or minutes ahead, but even that was a great advantage in battle. He could tell what jutsu an opponent was going to use next or where they would aim their weapons. Akisane's ability, which gave her limited control over the weather, was also quite useful.

In addition to working with Orochimaru on new jutsus, Sasori embarked on another project: building a puppet large enough for him to hide inside. Named Hiruko, it would provide an extra barrier between Sasori and his opponents, and would have strong enough offensive capabilities to dispatch most enemies. Hiruko was one of the most complex of his puppets, and took many months of work to complete. Around the time when Hiruko was nearing completion, Sasori committed a deed that most people would have said was impossible: he singlehandedly conquered a country.

* * *

The Akatsuki's base, nestled high up in the mountains, was within the territory of a small and remote shinobi nation, aptly named the Mountain Country. On a global scale, this country was pretty much insignificant. Although it had a shinobi army, this "army" consisted of barely 150 ninja, most of whom were genin or chuunin level. Still, coupled with the forbidding terrain for which the country was named, these 150 ninja discouraged non-shinobi countries from attacking.

The ninja of the Mountain Country tolerated the Akatsuki's presence, generally acting as though the base in the mountains didn't exist. In return, the Akatsuki didn't interfere with the citizens of the Mountain Country, except to buy supplies from them. It was essentially an unspoken non-aggression treaty between the two groups of shinobi. Recently, however, the Akatsuki had been sending teams out on many missions to the other countries, attacking the jinchuuriki they had identified and stealing secret jutsus. The feudal lords of the Mountain Country (all three of them) became concerned that this might draw the attention of the other shinobi countries to their small nation. They were happy to be overlooked by the five great shinobi countries—it meant that they didn't get pulled into those countries' wars.

On one summer morning, Sasori was leaving the base with Tobi on an information-gathering mission to the Fire Country. Orochimaru did not accompany them, since he would have been recognized in his home nation. Sasori would have been perfectly happy to go on his own, but Tobi had begged to come with him as part of his training. Tobi desperately wanted to become the Akatsuki's ninth member, and would generally volunteer for any mission that the Akatsuki wanted to send one of their subordinates on. Plus, Akisane had caught him watching her bathe in a hot spring, and he felt that his continued survival would be best served by leaving the area for a while. Sasori had grudgingly agreed to take him along. Truth be told, the three children the Akatsuki had taken in as subordinates reminded him of his students from the Sand—strong, intelligent, and absolutely in awe of their superiors.

As the two of them descended into the valley that held the Mountain Country's capital city (which was really more like a mid-sized town), they found the three feudal lords standing in the middle of the road, apparently waiting for them. Tobi leaned towards Sasori and whispered in his ear, "This could be trouble. They're going to order the Akatsuki out of their country."

Tobi was right. That _could _be trouble.

The oldest of the feudal lords, a statuesque man with a long mustache and beard, stepped forward. "We have been hearing rumors about your organization's actions in other countries," he said in a stern voice. "If the other countries trace your people back here, the Mountain Country could be endangered. We cannot afford hostility from the five great shinobi countries. We have coexisted with the Akatsuki for many years, but now we must demand that you leave our territory."

The three feudal lords looked resolute, with their arms folded across their chests. Clearly, they had all agreed on this beforehand. Keeping his face and voice as bland as possible, Sasori replied, "No one may tell the Akatsuki where we can or cannot go. We will remain where we are, and it would be in your best interests to leave us alone."

The feudal lord who had spoken before glowered and said, "This is not a request. _We_ are the lords of the Mountain Country, and we say who may or may not live within our borders. You may abide by our decision willingly, or face the wrath of our shinobi."

Sasori almost smiled at that. Never having fought one of the Akatsuki before, the Mountain ninjas had no idea what the "wrath of a shinobi" could _really _be like. "It is, of course, your prerogative to attack us if you wish…but I would recommend against that."

Tobi leaned close to him again and whispered, "You're going to be attacked by five ANBU-level shinobi. They're hiding behind that ridge on the left."

One of the feudal lords who had said nothing up to this point now spoke up. "Perhaps, if you are defeated, your companions will be more reasonable." _That _almost made Sasori laugh. Expecting Orochimaru, Deidara, and Kisame to be reasonable was like expecting the sun to rise in the west. Before Sasori could point that out, five shinobi emerged from behind the ridge Tobi had mentioned and launched themselves at him.

Sasori yanked a scroll out of his pocket and activated it. The Sandaime Kazekage, now a human puppet, appeared between him and the oncoming ninja. "Tobi-kun, hide behind one of those ridges. I will handle this."

"But, Sasori-sama…" Tobi had taken up a fighting stance, and was eager to prove himself in battle, as always.

"The feudal lords believe that the Akatsuki can be pushed around by them. It will only bolster that impression if I allow my subordinate to do my fighting for me."

"Yes, Sasori-sama," Tobi said reluctantly, and retreated behind a nearby ridge.

Meanwhile, the Sandaime Kazekage had opened its mouth, and the Iron Sand poured out. Quickly forming it into kunai and shuriken, Sasori sent it whizzing towards the Mountain shinobi. Two were hit and dropped, but three managed to dodge. One of the remaining three carried a katana, one held a pair of sais, and the third had many kunai and shuriken. Using the Sandaime's ability to control metallic objects, Sasori pulled the Mountain ninjas' weapons from their holsters and turned them on their owners. While the shinobi were busy dodging their own weapons, Sasori summoned a second puppet. This one had been made from a shinobi of the Mist, and it quickly formed the seal for the Suffocating Mist technique. The air around the three remaining shinobi thickened, creating a dense fog. The coagulated water vapor poured into their noses and mouths and down their throats, driving the air out of their lungs and essentially drowning them on dry land. Assuming that he was victorious, Sasori had just returned the puppets to their scrolls when he heard Tobi shout, "Sasori-sama! They've got the country's entire army hiding in the surrounding terrain! They're all going to attack you at once!"

Indeed, shinobi soon began descending on Sasori's position. They had clearly been waiting for the first Akatsuki member who came down from the base, apparently planning to dispose of that member and then march on the complex. Sasori did not hesitate, but pulled out yet another scroll. This one was special. It held not one puppet, but one hundred. These were some of Sasori's finest creations, designed to work together against a large number of foes. Sasori had planned to use them when fighting his designated jinchuuriki. He unrolled the scroll, channeled chakra into it, and was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of puppets.

* * *

When Tobi looked back on that event later, he would estimate that it took approximately half an hour for Sasori's puppets to decimate the Mountain Country's shinobi army. The air resounded with the sound of explosions, and jutsus lit up the sky. The ground shook, and Tobi clung to his hiding place, mouth agape in awe. About ten minutes into the fight, he saw a large bird flapping down from the mountains—clearly, the other Akatsuki had noticed the battle going on and come to help. As the bird got closer, Tobi could see Kisame, Deidara, and Akisane on its back. The bird swooped low over him, and Akisane reached down a hand to pull him up.

"What the hell is going on here? Why is Sasori fighting the Mountain nins?" Kisame demanded.

"They want us out of their country. Sasori and the feudal lords are having a…disagreement about the matter," Tobi explained.

"Sasori-danna! Hold on, we'll help you, yeah!" Deidara called down. He had taken to calling Sasori "danna" ever since Sasori had defeated him. It was a mark of profound respect for a man whom he considered a fellow artist and a superb ninja. He held up two clay cranes. Kisame unsheathed Samehada. Akisane looked to the sky, and a bank of ominous-looking thunderclouds began to form.

"It's all right, Deidara-san, I have everything under control," Sasori replied calmly.

"He's right," Tobi said in wonderment. "My gods…he's really going to win. He's going to take down all of them."

And he did. Twenty minutes later, all of the Mountain shinobi lay dead or critically injured. Two of Sasori's puppets had been demolished, and several others had taken minor damage, but Sasori himself was completely unharmed. Deidara's bird glided to the ground near Sasori, and all four shinobi jumped off and ran to Sasori as he returned his puppet army to its scroll. He looked as though he had done nothing more strenuous than taking a walk around the block. "That…that…" Akisane stuttered, apparently at a loss for words.

"Heh, these artistic puppets of yours aren't so bad, yeah," said Deidara. "But how did the fight start? Did they attack you?"

Sasori explained, "The feudal lords of the Mountain Country wished to express their displeasure with our presence and our recent actions. However, I am sure they have no complaints anymore…is that correct?" He turned to face the three feudal lords, who had taken shelter behind another ridge. Now they emerged, their former resolve gone. They were pale and trembling, eyes wide and mouths hanging open in pure shock.

"No…no complaints at all…" one of them managed to choke out, and then all three turned and ran away from the group of Akatsuki as fast as their legs would carry them.

* * *

After that incident, the feudal lords of the Mountain Country never dared express any discontent with the Akatsuki's actions again. They slowly rebuilt their ninja army, though all new recruits were given strict orders not to attack, harass, or even annoy any of the Akatsuki members.

The Akatsuki, meanwhile, had enlisted their ninth and final member, a member of the famous Uchiha clan of Konoha. Having learned from their experience with Sasori, none of the Akatsuki objected to Itachi joining the organization at the tender young age of 16. Orochimaru, in particular, seemed very happy to have Itachi as part of the group.

Sasori and Orochimaru continued to work together, developing new jutsus and uncovering many long-lost secrets. One of the jutsus that Orochimaru and Sasori developed together would eventually come to be known as Kuchiyose Edo Tensei: literally, Summoning the Dead. The technique called a dead person's soul back from the afterlife and sealed it within a corpse. The reanimated person would be able to use all jutsus and bloodline abilities that he had mastered while alive. It was a powerful technique, allowing the user to summon some of the most powerful shinobi in history to fight for him. Orochimaru and Sasori demonstrated this technique for the rest of the Akatsuki, summoning the soul of a powerful Leaf nin named Hyuuga Hizashi into the body of a lackey who had tried to betray them. All the members were quite impressed with the results. Itachi instantly copied the jutsu with his Sharingan, and the other members closely observed the seals so that they could begin learning the technique themselves.

"Does the body you use for the jutsu have to be dead?" inquired Kisame.

"A living body could be used, but the technique might fail in that case," explained Orochimaru. "The body's native soul and the summoned soul would fight for control of the body, and the soul that possessed a greater strength of will would win. The summoned soul might be rejected."

"Would it be possible," Deidara wondered, "to transfer a soul from a living body to another body? Does the soul have to be summoned from the afterlife? If you could put your soul into another body when you got old, you would be immortal, yeah."

For some reason, this question seemed to make Orochimaru vaguely uncomfortable. "No," he said, "that is not possible. The soul you use must come from the afterlife." As far as Sasori knew, that was true, but he wondered why Orochimaru sounded so unsettled as he said it.

After the demonstration, Sasori and the other members left the main chamber of the base, where the demonstration had occurred. Orochimaru and Itachi remained behind, talking about something or other. Sasori wandered down the hallway and had nearly reached his room when he was almost knocked over by Tobi and Akisane, who were barreling down the hall in the other direction. "Sasori-sama!" Tobi yelled, "Orochimaru-sama is betraying us! He's going to try and steal Itachi-sama's body!"

Now Sasori knew why Deidara's question had rattled Orochimaru. He _had _found a way to transfer his soul into another body, and he was planning for that body to be Itachi's. He spun around and ran after Tobi and Akisane, who were continuing to sprint back towards the main room at roughly the speed of light.

He arrived in the huge cavern just in time to see Orochimaru dodging Itachi's Grand Fireball Technique. Orochimaru stuck his hands out in front of him, and snakes poured out of the long sleeves of his Akatsuki robe. They slithered towards Itachi, who jumped into the air and incinerated them with another fire jutsu. Orochimaru then bit his thumb and summoned a three-headed snake that reached nearly to the ceiling of the cavern. One head aimed for Itachi, one for Tobi, and one for Akisane. Tobi's precognitive abilities allowed him to dodge the head easily, and he used a medical ninjutsu to cut its muscles so that it fell limply to the ground. Akisane pulled out the two wakizashis she carried strapped to her back and cut the head attacking her to pieces. Itachi simply stood back and created two Kage Bunshins to attack the snake for him. When the bunshins got near to the snake, they exploded.

While Itachi was dealing with his part of the three-headed snake, Tobi and Akisane had gone after Orochimaru. Tobi had formed chakra scalpels extending from each fingertip, and was swiping at Orochimaru with them. Akisane, meanwhile, was trying her hardest to decapitate Orochimaru with her twin swords. Orochimaru seemed to be taking the two Akatsuki henchmen seriously, as he had pulled out the sword of Kusanagi. Suddenly, Tobi stumbled backwards, bellowing, "Akisane-san! Watch out for your arm!" Just as he said this, Orochimaru saw an opening in Akisane's defense and sliced through her left forearm with Kusanagi. Grinning at her piercing scream, he raised the blade to finish her off—and a sword came out of nowhere and cut through his wrist.

Itachi had run up behind Akisane, caught her with one hand as she fell, picked up one of her swords with the other hand, and cut off Orochimaru's hand, all in the space of a few seconds. In addition, Orochimaru now found himself looking directly into Itachi's eyes. "Orochimaru-san," he said in an icy tone, "if you desire the Sharingan so much, I will show you its true power. Tsukiyomi!"

Orochimaru collapsed to his knees, and his screams were even louder and more agonized than Akisane's.

* * *

Itachi had handed Akisane off to Tobi, who was using a medical jutsu to staunch the bleeding from what was left of her arm. Having insured that she was not going to bleed to death, Tobi glared through his mask at Orochimaru, who had finally stopped screaming. "I," he said in a voice that could have made jounins shake in their boots, "am going to kill you." Itachi didn't seem to have any objections to this, because he stepped back out of the way as Tobi formed a seal and charged at Orochimaru. Tobi was so enraged that he ignored the premonition tickling at the back of his mind—and thus was caught completely unawares when Kimimaro darted into the room, removed his femur, and impaled Tobi with it.

Sasori was as close as he ever got to being in shock. Certainly the Akatsuki were a devious bunch of traitors, but they had a common goal. Because of this, he had not expected one of their own to betray them. Besides, Orochimaru was his partner, his comrade. Now his partner had backstabbed them, and two of his subordinates lay maimed and bleeding on the floor. Images of his parents' death, his teammates' death, and the betrayal of the Sandaime Kazekage flitted through his mind. Was everyone he considered a comrade or friend going to either die or betray him? Was this pattern of death and treachery going to continue forever?

Rousing himself from these musings, Sasori summoned a puppet and used it to send a rain of poisoned needles flying towards Kimimaro and Orochimaru. Kimimaro placed himself in front of Orochimaru and deflected all the needles with his femur.

Akisane had somehow struggled to her feet next to Tobi, who was engaged in the rather difficult task of using high-level medical ninjutsu on himself. "Why?" she asked Kimimaro in a hoarse voice filled with anger and pain. "How dare you betray your comrades and superiors? How can you protect that _bastard_ who tried to hurt Itachi-sama?"

Kimimaro regarded her calmly. "When my clan was annihilated by the Mist, I lost everything. I felt like I was dead. Orochimaru-sama gave me my life back. He gave me a purpose. Because of that, I will do anything to protect Orochimaru-sama's dream."

With those words, Kimimaro hefted the barely-conscious Orochimaru over his shoulder and punched the ground. "Dance of the Seedling Ferns!" A wall of solid, spiked bones erupted out of the ground and grew towards the ceiling, separating the Akatsuki from Orochimaru and Kimimaro. By the time Sasori managed to smash through the wall with the Sandaime's Iron Sand, both traitors were long gone.

Footsteps pounded along the corridor as Deidara and Kisame arrived, having been attracted by all the commotion. They halted in the doorway, momentarily stunned by the destruction that lay before them. "What happened?" Kisame asked.

Sasori quickly filled him in on the situation. Both shinobi scowled when he told them what Orochimaru had done. "We should hunt down that bastard and kill him, yeah!" Deidara exclaimed.

"I'm going to strangle him with his own tongue," Kisame growled.

"Hmm," Itachi said thoughtfully, "that may not be necessary. Orochimaru will suffer lingering damage from the Tsukiyomi, and he has been severely wounded as well. And Kimimaro has no skill with medical ninjutsu."

"Even if he does survive," Sasori mused, "there are very few jutsus that can be performed with one-handed seals alone. Orochimaru has always been obsessed with learning all jutsus. To live without any hope of achieving that dream would be worse than death for him. And without the ability to use most techniques, he poses no threat to us."

The Akatsuki members were distracted from their conversation by the sound of two bodies hitting the floor. Tobi and Akisane had both collapsed, and Tobi was now sitting in an awkward half-upright position while cradling Akisane's unconscious body. "Orochimaru won't die," he told them, and then he too passed out.

Sasori walked over to the two young shinobi and bent down next to them. He summoned a human puppet that he had made from a Stone medic nin. The puppet began repairing the gaping wound in Tobi's torso, while Sasori mentally began planning the design of a puppet arm for Akisane. Ordinarily, a subordinate who was mortally wounded would be dismissed as weak. A shinobi who allowed himself to be incapacitated had failed, and deserved no compassion. These two, however, were different. They possessed powerful bloodline abilities that were useful to the Akatsuki. The organization would be deprived of their talents if they died. That was all there was to it. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that they reminded him of his former teammates, or the passionate determination he had possessed as a young Sand ninja. Certainly he had no emotional attachment to them—they were only subordinates, and he would not be the least bit saddened if they died.

Or so he told himself.

* * *

A/N: I'm going away for about a week and a half, so the seventh and final chapter may not be up for about 2 weeks.

I'm not sure exactly when Oro took Kimi in, but if it was when Kimi was a small child, I think it's plausible for Oro to still have been in Akatsuki at the time.

Finally, I apologize to all the Oro fans out there for the horrible beating he takes in this chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7: Prelude to the Final Battle_

In response to Orochimaru's betrayal and the near-death of Tobi and Akisane, Sasori pushed his remaining emotions into an even deeper and darker part of his psyche. He became so dispassionate that Tobi and Akisane joked (always out of his hearing, of course) that even Itachi was practically warm and fuzzy compared to him. As Tobi had predicted, Orochimaru did not die, but no one was terribly concerned about that. What could he do with one hand, after all?

The most pressing issue at hand was the designation of a new partner for Sasori. After some discussion, Deidara was chosen for that position. This was partly because Deidara had such overwhelming respect for Sasori, which pretty much guaranteed that they would be able to work well together. It also seemed fitting to place the two artists on the same team. Sasori took his puppet-making very seriously, and considered additions to his collection with the same deliberation as a museum curator. Each piece had to fit seamlessly into the whole, contributing something unique. Deidara was much the same way. Every sculpture he created had to be perfect, and his sculptures were all exquisitely detailed. The birds and spiders he made truly looked as though they were alive, and moved with the same grace as the animals they were modeled after.

Although Sasori and Deidara both considered themselves artists, they disagreed over what gave a work artistic merit. They discussed the subject on their first mission together, as they traveled through the dense forests of the Water Country. "Why is it," Sasori asked, "that you make works of art that are destined to be destroyed soon after they are completed? Why put in the effort to make them so beautiful when that beauty will not last?"

"But Sasori-danna, that is the nature of art, yeah," replied Deidara in a tone of surprise, as though he couldn't believe Sasori hadn't thought of this before. "The destruction of my creations _is_ the source of their beauty, yeah. That one brief moment of light and sound, that instant of annihilation, is when my art achieves its perfection, yeah."

"But for something to be truly considered art, should it not endure through the ages? Art is meant to be admired by generation after generation. It is a way for the artist to achieve immortality, for it will continue to exist long after he himself has died. Living beings depart this life, but the art they create is eternal."

The big disadvantage of Deidara's "art" was that the "one brief moment of light and sound" tended to attract a lot of attention. Later on during that same mission, Sasori and Deidara were ambushed by a Mist ANBU squad. Sasori killed two members of the five-man squad with his puppets, but Deidara decided to take out the remaining three with a particularly violent explosion—he was apparently testing a new formulation for his clay. Needless to say, this brought two more squads down upon their heads. Defeating ANBU wasn't really a challenge for two Akatsuki members, but being constantly attacked did get rather annoying after a while. "Deidara-san," Sasori said as he easily dodged the kunai being thrown by one of the Mist ANBU, "is it really necessary to attract this much attention?"

"Hmph, they just don't appreciate good art, yeah," Deidara retorted as he killed another one of their attackers. "Besides, it means we get to fight more, yeah." He grinned mischievously.

It was at that moment that Sasori realized why Deidara was never sent on missions that required extreme stealth.

* * *

Despite the occasional disagreement, Sasori and Deidara successfully completed many missions over the next few years. The Akatsuki organization as a whole was growing in power as well. Two of the jinchuuriki were located and captured, and their demons were extracted for the benefit of the Akatsuki. During this time, the Akatsuki members scattered across the world, seeking news of the remaining seven jinchuuriki. Although their founder always remained at the base in the Mountain Country, the others rarely returned in person. When it was necessary for the group to convene, they used yet another of the jutsus that Sasori and Orochimaru had developed together to do so. This jutsu was similar to Kage Bunshin, except that the clone could be projected at a distance away from the real person, and the real person could speak and use jutsus through his clone. On one rare occasion, the group did have a true meeting in the cavern where Sasori had first encountered the other members. It was at this time that they learned that Orochimaru had gained a powerful weapon: Itachi's younger brother, a Konoha shinobi who had awakened the legendary Sharingan. Although Itachi seemed unaffected by this news, Sasori was concerned: being a puppet, he was immune to the fearsome hypnotic abilities of the Sharingan, but no one else could stand against it. He was not comfortable with Orochimaru possessing such a potent weapon. Furthermore, Orochimaru had switched bodies, allowing him to regain the use of his jutsus despite the crippling wound given to him by Itachi (and later, an even worse injury administered by the Third Hokage). He was not as powerless as they had thought he would be, and might well turn his power against them one day. Even before Orochimaru had enticed Sasuke to join him, Sasori had been apprehensive about the ex-Akatsuki's growing strength, and had assigned one of his subordinates, a medical ninja named Kabuto, to infiltrate Orochimaru's Hidden Sound Village. Sasori had conscripted Kabuto after Orochimaru left the Akatsuki, which meant that Orochimaru would not recognize him as an Akatsuki minion.

Deidara seemed to sense Sasori's worry over Orochimaru's recent actions, and reassured him, "In time, Orochimaru will be dead, yeah".

Their founder agreed. "We will obtain the Kyuubi, and then everything will be in our hands."

Sasori remained quiet. He personally thought the other Akatsuki were underestimating the danger posed by Orochimaru, and made a mental note to set up a meeting with Kabuto. He wanted to know exactly how Orochimaru was switching bodies, and when he would be able to transfer into Sasuke's body. They needed to make sure that he did not make that transition—even if it meant killing the boy. He glanced at Itachi, and hoped that the older Uchiha would understand the necessity of preventing Orochimaru from taking his brother's body at any cost. If he objected, things could become very troublesome.

As the meeting broke up, Sasori wandered over to where Itachi and Kisame stood in a shadowy corner, discussing something in soft voices. "Itachi-san, may I speak with you?" he asked.

"Of course, Sasori-san," Itachi said with his characteristic politeness. He nodded slightly to Kisame, who sauntered off to chat with Deidara. "What did you wish to speak about?"

"Are you not concerned about Orochimaru's apparent intention to possess your brother's body and acquire the Sharingan?" Contrary to what one might expect from someone who was theoretically immortal, Sasori hated to be kept waiting. As such, he rarely beat around the bush when speaking, preferring to come straight to the point.

"Sasuke-kun is still weak, and he lacks the strength of will to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan. It does not matter how strong Orochimaru's mind is, as long as the body he inhabits is weak."

"Still, if Orochimaru gains possession of as powerful a weapon as the Sharingan…"

Itachi cut him off. "If Sasuke becomes powerful, _I _will deal with him—regardless of whether it is his soul or Orochimaru's in his body."

Sasori considered for a moment. He and Itachi were similar in their cold, impassive temperament, but many among the Akatsuki believed that Itachi still harbored some fraternal feelings for his younger brother. Sasori suspected that Itachi simply wanted to fight someone who had better than a snowball's chance in hell of beating him. Itachi seemed to be trying to goad his brother into gaining power by any means necessary, in the hope that he would one day be strong enough to fight Itachi on equal footing. Whatever the true motivation for these actions, it was clear that he had plans for his brother, and would not take kindly to anyone interfering with them. Antagonizing Itachi was generally a good way to end up dead (or wishing that you were dead). In addition, any conflict between Sasori and Itachi could divide the Akatsuki and put their future plans in danger. For these reasons, Sasori decided to wait for Kabuto's report before embarking on a course of action that he wouldn't be able to back down from. If Orochimaru couldn't switch bodies for a while, there might not be a need to do anything immediately. With luck, there would be enough time for Konoha to mount a rescue mission and bring Sasuke back, so that Sasori wouldn't have to do anything at all.

* * *

Two and a half more years passed. Kabuto had confirmed that Orochimaru would not be able to switch bodies for three years, which meant that Konoha had six more months to retrieve Sasuke. If they were unable to do so, Sasori might have to take action, which he was not looking forward to.

He and Deidara were currently waiting in a café in a small town on the outskirts of the Wind Country. Tobi and Akisane had been on a reconnaissance mission to gather information about the current Bearer of Shukaku. Sasori vividly remembered his encounter with the previous bearer as a young boy, but it appeared that the demon had been transferred to a new host, and there was no telling how strong the new Bearer was likely to be. _"Being implanted with Shukaku changes a person. They become…almost bloodthirsty. For that reason, people used to be afraid of the first Bearer, and they fear Miyoshi too. He doesn't have friends…I don't think anyone wants to be around him." _Sasori shook his head, pushing away the memory.

"We're going to meet with Kabuto-kun after we extract the Shukaku, right, Sasori-danna?" Deidara was looking at him curiously, not used to seeing him lost in thought.

"We are, yeah."

"Heh, now you sound like me, yeah." Deidara gave another one of his mischievous grins. "I'm looking forward to this, yeah."

At that moment, Sasori saw Tobi and Akisane approaching. They sat down at the table, and Sasori noticed how much they had changed over the past few years. Tobi was broad-shouldered and as tall as Deidara, and Akisane now possessed the curved figure of a woman. Sasori felt a slight pang as he contemplated the fact that his body would never age into adulthood as theirs were now doing. He would always appear to be the sixteen-year-old boy he had been when he left the Sand. Sasori blinked, unaccustomed to so much unproductive reminiscence. Being back in his home country must be affecting him more than he wanted to admit. "What have you learned about the jinchuuriki who carries Shukaku?" he asked.

Tobi had replaced his usual swirl-patterned mask with a Sand ANBU mask to avoid attracting attention. "Yuura-kun was right about Shukaku having been transferred to a new host. He's a young man, with dark red hair and blue-green eyes. Pretty short, with a slender build. He's easy to recognize because of that gourd he carries around. His name's Sabaku no Gaara."

Sasori nodded. "What do you know about his strength and his ability to control the power of Shukaku?"

Tobi and Akisane glanced at each other, and Akisane fidgeted nervously with the long gloves she wore to conceal her puppet arm. "He seems to have superb control over Shukaku's abilities. He can control the sand perfectly, and…he's the Kazekage."

"WHAT!" Typically, this outburst came from Deidara. "They made a _jinchuuriki_ their _Kage?_!" His surprise was understandable. Jinchuurikis were usually hated by the rest of the population. In fact, when Akatsuki had fought and captured the two previous jinchuurikis, the jinchuurikis' comrades had quickly abandoned them and allowed the Akatsuki teams to leave unhindered with their captives. Some of the Mist ninjas had even been heard to express gratitude towards "Kisame and that red-eyed kid" for taking their jinchuuriki off their hands. For a village to name a jinchuuriki as its leader was unheard of.

Tobi nodded. "It's true. Sabaku no Gaara, third Bearer of Shukaku, is the Sand's Godaime Kazekage."

"Will the people of Sunagakure protect him from us?" Sasori asked. He remembered how everyone had seemed to fear Miyoshi, the previous Bearer of Shukaku, and how Kagaiya had said that no one wanted to associate with him. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that this new jinchuuriki was accepted—even admired—by the Sand's citizens.

Akisane responded, "Many of the people we talked to spoke of Gaara with admiration—they say he has changed a great deal and now truly wishes to protect his village. They are generally happy with his leadership so far, although a few still have misgivings. I think most of them will aid him if necessary."

Tobi swallowed hard, and Sasori was sure that if his face was visible, a shadow of fear would have passed across it. "Deidara-sama…we've heard people speak of the things this Gaara has done in past battles. He can generate huge waves of sand, and he has an impenetrable defense called the Shield of Shukaku. He can use minerals within the ground to augment the sand he carries in his gourd. We even heard…that he defeated Kimimaro with the help of a Leaf nin." This seemed to be the only thing the young shinobi had heard that made them happy—they had never forgiven Kimimaro for siding with Orochimaru against the Akatuski and nearly killing Tobi. "I know the Akatsuki have usually fought one-on-one against their assigned jinchuuriki, but perhaps in this case it would be prudent for you to have Sasori-sama's assistance?"

That alone told Sasori how worried Tobi and Akisane were about the intelligence they had gathered. Having been essentially raised by the Akatsuki, they were both of the opinion that their superiors were invincible. Gaara must be one hell of a shinobi if Tobi had any doubts about Deidara being able to bring him down on his own.

Deidara, on the other hand, did not appear to be worried at all. He favored the two Akatsuki subordinates with one of his trademark cocky grins. "Don't worry about me, yeah. I've been improving my artistic skills, and I've got a way to keep those Sand weaklings from interfering, yeah." Having been present for the initial tests of Deidara's Special #18, Sasori knew exactly what Deidara was talking about.

"There is something else we can do," he said. "I have a subordinate within the Sand—he can neutralize the guards so that you can sneak into the village without an alarm being sounded."

Deidara had no problems with this plan, as long as he could engage Gaara alone. Sasori sent Tobi and Akisane off to meet with Zetsu, who was busy gathering information on the Cloud jinchuuriki. He and Deidara then set off across the expanse of desert that separated the border town from the Sand village. When the walls of the village came into view, Sasori concentrated for a moment, releasing the memory suppression on a Sand jounin named Yuura. Yuura had had the bad fortune to encounter Sasori on a mission some years ago, and Sasori had placed the man under his mental control. Sasori had met with him a few times since then, but the most recent of these meetings had been a few months ago. He knew, therefore, that Shukaku had been transferred to another host, but not that the new host was the recently chosen Godaime. Within the Sand, Yuura headed for the main gate, arriving just as the guards sighted the slowly approaching Akatsuki members. They were understandably alarmed, but Yuura told them, "Don't worry, it'll be over soon." In a manner of speaking, this was true—Yuura had killed all of the guards silently in the time it took Sasori and Deidara to reach the gate.

Deidara created a bird large enough to ride on and took off over the Sand village, while Sasori and Yuura watched from below. They watched as Deidara took out the guards who were watching the sky, landed on the roof of a building near the center of the village, and encountered Gaara. When Gaara followed Deidara up into the air, Yuura gasped and grabbed the sleeve of Sasori's Akatsuki robe. "Sasori-sama, I recognize what he's doing. He's going to call up the sand from the desert ground, and bury your partner in a wave of sand!"

Sasori glared at Yuura, who quickly let go of Sasori's sleeve. "Deidara-san won't be caught that easily," he said calmly. "Watch."

Indeed, Deidara managed to dodge the sand for a while, but was eventually caught by Gaara's Desert Prison. When Deidara fell from the sphere of sand, his left arm crushed and bleeding, Sasori began to hurry forward. Was he going to have to interfere after all? He and Deidara had their disagreements, but they had become somewhat close over their years of working together. Once again, troublesome emotions stirred. As much as he had tried to eliminate those human feelings that still remained after Orochimaru's betrayal, he found that he did not want Deidara to die.

As it turned out, there was no reason for him to worry. Deidara conjured another bird to catch him, and brought out the Special #18, his ultimate weapon. Sasori looked at Yuura, hoping that his servant hadn't seen his sigh of relief. There was no reason to worry about that, either—Yuura's gaze was riveted on the battle occurring high above them.

When the #18 went off, the light was so bright that Yuura had to raise a hand to shield his eyes. The sound of the blast was almost deafening, and the shock waves that reverberated through the air knocked Yuura off his feet. Out in the desert, Tobi and Akisane saw the massive explosion, and Akisane began racing towards the Sand. "Akisane-san! It's okay! Deidara-sama's got a trick up his sleeve. He put some of his clay into Gaara's sand, it's going to go off and knock Gaara out." Tobi pulled her back, and they continued on their way to the rendezvous with Zetsu.

Meanwhile, Deidara had done exactly as Tobi predicted. Gaara had used the last of his strength to protect the Sand from the #18, and had been unable to avoid the explosion of the two smaller sculptures that Deidara had hidden within his protective sand shell. He fell out of the sky, directly onto the back of Deidara's bird. The bird wheeled around, descended, and came to rest beside Sasori and Yuura.

* * *

"You're late," Sasori said, hiding his relief at Deidara's survival behind a mask of irritation. He and his partner began their trek across the desert, only to hear a shout from behind them. They turned to see who was foolish enough to confront them. It was a young man in a hooded outfit, with designs traced across his face in purple paint. Sasori sighed inwardly. Deidara was gravely injured, and his supply of clay had been depleted. He was in no condition to fight. It looked like Sasori would have to deal with this kid. Not that it should take very long.

Sasori sent Deidara on ahead, and watched the kid curiously. What could possibly make him think he could take on an Akatsuki member alone? When the boy pulled out three scrolls and laid them on the ground, Sasori realized that he was also a puppetmaster. When he saw the names written on the scrolls—Kuroari, Karasu, and Sanshouuo—he realized that the kid was using _his_ old puppets. Sure enough, his old familiar playthings materialized, and the kid (whose name was apparently Kankurou) sent Karasu flying after Deidara. Sasori promptly extended Hiruko's tail and caught Karasu in midair.

Kankurou's fingers moved as delicately as those of a master pianist, and Sanshouuo scuttled forward, opening its mouth and spewing out a flurry of poisoned darts. Kuroari, meanwhile, moved in a wide arc, its torso opening as it positioned itself behind Sasori. Sasori moved Hiruko's tail in front of him, blocking Sanshouuo's darts. At the same time, he released Karasu and attached his own chakra strings to it. Sweeping Karasu down in front of him, he slapped an explosive tag onto its back and used it to tackle Kuroari. When he set off the explosive tag, both puppets were blown to pieces.

Now only Sanshouuo remained. Panels on its back slid open, and a multitude of shuriken flew out. Sasori dodged some, blocked others, and attached chakra strings to a few. These he directed not at Sanshouuo, but at Kankurou. Kankurou was able to dodge, but while he was distracted, Sasori darted forward, planted an explosive tag on Sanshuoou, and sliced Kankuro's torso with the tip of Hiruko's tail. Using the tail to shield himself from the blast, he detonated Sanshouuo as Kankurou dropped to the ground.

Hiruko's tail, like most of Sasori's weapons, was laced with poison, and Kankurou soon found himself immobile. He sent one of Karasu's arms flying towards Sasori, and actually managed to tear off a piece of the cloth that covered the lower half of Sasori's face. Sasori moved forward to kill him, but the fierce determination he saw in the boy's eyes brought back another flood of memories.

_Asana, running forward to fight the Rock shinobi who had just killed Kagaiya, the chakra pouring off him in waves. Akisane and Tobi, hurrying to Itachi's aid even though it meant going toe-to-toe with Orochimaru. Tobi, holding Akisane's body in his arms, more concerned with her wounds than with his own. _And now, Kankurou, refusing to die while his Kazekage was still in danger. How long had it been since Sasori himself had felt that passion to protect a precious person? How long had it been since he had even _had _someone that important? "If you want to live so much, I won't kill you now," he told Kankurou. "But that poison will kill you in three days." Leaving the young puppetmaster lying among his broken weapons, Sasori hastened to catch up to Deidara.

* * *

The ceremony necessary to extract Shukaku from Gaara was being held in one of the Akatsuki's backup bases. Being an organization of hunted missing-nins, the Akatsuki had set up several hideouts besides the main headquarters in the Mountain Country. This particular hideout was set into a cliff that rose out of a lake in the no-man's-land between the Fire and Wind Countries. It was the closest of the bases to the Sand Village, and hence the one to which Sasori and Deidara brought Gaara. They were greeted there by the founder of the Akatsuki, who quickly summoned the vessel that would hold the essences of the nine bijuu until it was time to transfer them into their new hosts. Their comrades shimmered into being atop the fingers of the huge statue, and Deidara and Sasori took their places. Zetsu was assigned to keep a lookout, and the ceremony began.

If Sasori had a body that was capable of breathing, the sheer power of the jutsu used to extract Shukaku would have taken his breath away. The chakra was so immense that it seemed to impart an electric charge to the air in the dank cave. It surrounded Gaara's body, ripping Shukaku's chakra away from his own. All of the Akatsuki stood stock-still, and would remain that way for three days and three nights.

On the third day, Zetsu spotted two groups of Konoha shinobi headed towards the base, clearly tracking Gaara. Sasori offered the bodies of Yuura and another of his subordinates for the Shouten no Jutsu, and Itachi and Kisame possessed the bodies in order to defeat or delay the intruders. Sasori was mildly annoyed at having to give up two of his minions, but supposed it was a better option than allowing the shinobi to reach the base.

* * *

"So, what is this game called again?"

"Chess. It's like shougi, but with different pieces."

"And why are we playing it?"

"Because I'm bored to tears. Zetsu-sama is off spying on some Leaf-nins, and the ceremony won't be over for another 12 hours."

Akisane sighed. She and Tobi were sitting under a cherry tree on a hill outside the Hidden Cloud Village. Zetsu had gone off to watch a couple of Leaf-nin teams that were trying to interfere with the extraction of Shukaku. They had been told to wait here for his return. Tobi had decided to pass the time by trying out some new strategy game that Itachi had brought back from one of his missions to a far-off country.

"Okay, so the piece that you try to capture is the Daimyo, right?"

"No, it's called the King."

"Okay. And this one here is a…Bishop? What the hell is a 'Bishop', anyway?"

No response. Akisane looked up and saw that Tobi was staring off into space. Given that he wore a mask over his whole face, no one else would have been able to determine this by looking at him. But Akisane had been working with him long enough to know when he was staring off into space, and he was definitely doing that now. It usually happened when he had one of his precognitive visions.

"Tobi-san? Are you having a premonition? What do you see?"

Suddenly, Tobi jumped up and grabbed Akisane's shoulders, knocking over the chessboard and scattering the pieces across the grass. "What the hell did you do that for!" exclaimed Akisane.

"We have to find Zetsu-sama, _now_! Sasori-sama and Deidara-sama are going to die tomorrow!"

Although Akisane knew that Tobi's visions were nearly always accurate, this struck her as ridiculous. "Tobi-san, Sasori-sama is _immortal_. He _can't_ die. And Deidara-sama's pretty much impossible to catch with that bird of his."

Tobi shook his head, and his hands on her shoulders felt cold and clammy. Akisane hadn't seen him this upset since he had foretold Orochimaru's betrayal minutes before it happened. "Sasori-sama has one vulnerability, some part of his body that's still biological. One of the Leaf-nins knows about it. There's…a girl with pink hair, and an old woman. And Deidara-sama…he's going to sacrifice himself to stop the other team. We _have _to find Zetsu-sama and warn him! We have to get to them in time!"

As impossible as the scenario sounded, Akisane knew better than to second-guess one of Tobi's predictions, especially when the stakes were so high. "Okay, but we don't know which group of Leaf-nins Zetsu-sama is with now. One was coming from the south and one from the northwest. If we split up, we'll have a better chance of finding him in time. Whichever one of us finds him can send a message to the other."

Tobi nodded his agreement. "You go south, I'll go northwest." The two shinobi sprinted off in different directions.

Tobi had never prayed before. As a general rule, the Akatsuki didn't believe in beseeching higher powers for help. If you wanted something done, you did it yourself. But now…_Please, let us get to them in time. Don't let Sasori-sama and Deidara-sama die…

* * *

_

A/N: OK, so you know how I said this would be the last chapter? Well, like all the previous chapters, this ended up being longer than I had expected, so it's going to be the second-to-last chapter instead. THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed so far!

Also: A "daimyo" is a feudal lord, and a "jinchuuriki" is a person who's had one of the bijuu (demons) sealed into him.


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8: Threnody_

"_A shinobi is still human. We may not be able to become emotionless tools." _

_--Momochi Zabuza_

Sasori and Deidara heard something crash into the giant boulder that blocked the entrance to the base. With the barrier in place, no amount of physical force could open that door. However, they had to be prepared in case the team outside somehow managed to find all four of the other tags and remove the barrier. Both Akatsuki members moved to the middle of the room, flanking Gaara's corpse. After a few minutes of waiting for the enemy to appear, Deidara sighed and sat down on Gaara's body, apparently resting until their opponents showed themselves. Sasori was impatient. There was another jinchuuriki out there, and he wanted it.

Finally, there was a resounding boom, and the boulder crumbled into a pile of gravel. Four shinobi entered the cavern and quickly darted to opposite sides of the entrance. On the right were the famous Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi and a blond boy in a bright orange outfit. On the left were a pink-haired girl with sea-green eyes…and Sasori's grandmother.

Sasori was momentarily shocked by how _old_ Chiyo looked. Wrinkles covered every inch of her face, and her hair was snow-white. Yet he could tell from the determination in her eyes that she was still a formidable shinobi.

"_Chiyo-baasama understands the way of the ninja. Although she mourned for your parents, she knew that their sacrifice was necessary."_

A strange mix of anger, disappointment, regret, and happiness threatened to overwhelm Sasori, but he quickly subdued it. Chiyo had been the person he was closest to as a child. She had taught him what it meant to be a shinobi, and had showed him how to build and fight with the puppets that were now his sole weapons. But she had betrayed him by allowing her own son and daughter-in-law to be sent to their deaths. On that day, she had forfeited any loyalty that Sasori might once have owed her. Now she was just another enemy, and would be shown no more mercy than anyone else who stood in the Akatsuki's way.

The orange-clad boy—who was apparently the jinchuuriki—called out to Gaara, not realizing that his friend was dead.

"Sasori-danna, this will probably make you angry, but…I'll take care of this jinchuuriki, yeah" Deidara said. Sasori's eyes narrowed. Although there was some flexibility in which Akatsuki member went after each specific jinchuuriki, it had been made clear that each member was to capture _one_ demon container: no more and no less. Sasori swept his tail towards Deidara in a warning gesture, but Deidara hopped onto his bird, which picked up Gaara in its mouth and flew out of the cave into the open sky. The orange-wearing jinchuuriki took off after Deidara, Kakashi hurrying after him with an exasperated expression on what little could be seen of his face.

Sasori sighed. Deidara was badly injured and had almost no clay left. There was no way he could fight a jounin and a jinchuuriki in that condition—especially after three days without food or sleep. If Deidara was really stupid enough to do something like this, Sasori supposed there was no point in trying to talk him out of it. Deidara would either get himself killed or he wouldn't. Either way, Sasori had two opponents of his own to fight. Chiyo flung a bunch of kunai at him, but he deflected them effortlessly with Hiruko's tail. Then he stripped off his Akatsuki robe, revealing Hiruko itself. The young pink-haired girl (whom Chiyo addressed as Sakura) gasped in shock.

Sasori eyed the two kunoichi. Both had large chakra auras, indicating prodigious strength. Chiyo was a puppetmaster herself, and Sakura clearly had unusual physical power. He didn't have any puppets quite like them in his collection. Besides, 298 was an annoying number of puppets to have—he would much prefer it to be an even 300. So…

"First, I'll drag out your entrails," he explained, as Sakura's expression of shock and fear deepened. "Then, when I've ripped off your skin, I'll clean off all the blood. I'll treat it so that it doesn't decay, then stock it up with the rest of my puppet collection…That is my fine art!"

He fought the girl and Chiyo for a while, but Sakura surprised him by dodging all of his attacks. The reason for this was revealed when Chiyo showed the chakra strings that she had attached to Sakura's body. Sakura raced towards him, and Sasori lifted Hiruko's tail with a vague feeling of disappointment. _Is she really so foolish as to try an obvious frontal attack like that?_ As Hiruko's tail shot towards the girl, he suddenly felt it jerk to a halt mere inches from her face. _What?_ Squinting closely, he saw the nearly invisible chakra strings stretching from the tail back to Chiyo's hands. He didn't have time to analyze any more than that, as Sakura chose that moment to deliver a devastating punch to Hiruko. To Sasori's amazement, he felt the puppet breaking apart around him, and he jumped clear, wrapping himself in a piece of Hiruko's cloak.

Sasori supposed he shouldn't have been surprised by Chiyo's audacious strategy. She was, after all, the Sand's foremost puppetmaster, the woman who had taught him the art of puppetry. Still, he was an Akatsuki, and not so quickly defeated. "Do you really think it will be that easy, Grandma Chiyo?" He let the piece of Hiruko's robe drop, showing his true face.

Both Sakura and Chiyo looked stunned. Sakura had clearly not expected the legendary Akatsuki member to be so young and innocent-looking. And Chiyo…she looked as though she had seen a ghost. _If she looks like she's seeing one ghost now, why not show her a second?_ Sasori rummaged in the pocket of his robe, and pulled out the scroll into which he had sealed the Sandaime Kazekage.

When Sasori mentioned that he had originally been Orochimaru's partner, something in Sakura's face changed. The fear and uncertainty melted away, replaced by a fierce resolve. "No matter how much you resist, no matter what you do, I'll beat you half to death and make you talk about Orochimaru!" Sasori had to admit that he was impressed. Not many shinobi would be determined enough to wound themselves to escape from a trap. _Where does this strength of will come from? And why is she so hell-bent on learning about Orochimaru?_ A thought occurred to him. _She's a Leaf-nin…could she want to find Orochimaru and rescue Itachi-san's brother from him?_ Again, Sasori was reminded of Asana and Kagaiya, of Tobi and Akisane. _This determination to protect a comrade…how did I lose that? Is it because I didn't want to risk the pain of losing someone close to me again? How can this girl be so full of hope?_

Deciding to attack while the girl was distracted by making her speech, Sasori launched a flurry of kunai at her from within the tangle of Sandaime's arms. Chiyo pulled out two scrolls with a flourish, and the kunai were all blocked by two very familiar puppets. Looking into his father and mother's faces again, Sasori felt…something. Was it sorrow, regret, love? Whatever it was, he quickly concealed it and said contemptuously, "What is it you plan to do with those things? They're puppets I created. I know all of their secrets. This is pointless." After a brief clash of the three puppets, Sasori began to grow impatient. _This is taking too long. I really should go make sure that idiot Deidara-san hasn't gotten himself killed. Well, I know the best way to end this…_

At the appearance of the Iron Sand, Chiyo became alarmed and urged Sakura to leave. Sakura, to Sasori's complete lack of surprise, refused. _The girl's got guts, I'll give her that._ Sakura quickly showed that she had a lot more advantages than just guts—superhuman strength, for example. Still, she could not avoid all the spines of the Iron Sand World Model, and was cut by it numerous times. _It's over_, Sasori thought with a small smile of satisfaction. A single cut from any of his weapons was invariably fatal. So he was astonished when Sakura leapt to her feet and blasted the Sandaime puppet apart with a single punch. _Impossible! Did she use an antidote?_

Sasori was amazed. Mixing antidotes to poisons was notoriously difficult—only the very best medic nins could do it. And even the best medical shinobis in the world could not mix an antidote without some idea of what ingredients the poison contained. _That incredible strength, the ability to mix an antidote to one of my poisons—how does she do these things? Does she have an advanced bloodline? Or is she simply a genius?_ Sasori found his respect for the girl growing. _She is truly unique. Truly worthy of becoming part of my collection._

Given Chiyo's experience with puppets, and Sakura's ability to destroy anything with a single punch, there wasn't really much point in bringing out another puppet. The Sandaime Kazekage was the best one he had, and if Sakura and Chiyo could destroy that, they would utterly demolish any other puppets he threw at them. Any other puppet, that is, except for the one that no living person outside of the Akatsuki knew about. The puppet that only the Sandaime Kazekage and Deidara had ever fought.

It occurred to Sasori that he had not used his own body to fight since his match with Deidara when he entered the Akatsuki. Even against all the ninja of the Mountain Country, it had not been necessary. _Truly, this is a momentous occasion._ Slowly, Sasori unbuttoned his Akatsuki robe and allowed it to slip off his shoulders.

Sakura's eyes were wide, and the blood drained from her face as she saw Sasori's true form. "What…what is that?" she asked Chiyo in a bewildered tone of voice.

"Since he was separated from me, he has not aged…he is just like long ago…that is why," Chiyo responded.

_That's right,_ Sasori thought, and he could not suppress a small triumphant feeling. _You have aged, and your body has weakened, but mine has not. On the contrary, I can keep improving it so that it grows stronger and stronger. The ultimate work of art: a perfect body that will live eternally and only increase its strength as the decades pass._ Sasori felt a pitying expression cross his face as he looked at Chiyo. She was so _old_, with white hair, wrinkles criss-crossing her face like spiderwebs, and a stooped posture. And Sakura, who was now so vibrant and beautiful, would be just the same one day. But he would not. He would never share that fate.

While Sakura and Chiyo were still stunned, Sasori dashed towards them, extending his hands in their direction with palms out, as though ordering them to stop. The tubes of the flamethrowers extended out of his palms, and jets of fire gushed out. The two women ducked behind a rock, but Sasori flung the cable out of his stomach and embedded its blade in the rock behind Sakura. Reeling himself in towards Chiyo, he screamed "DIE!" as memories flashed through him again. _"Chiyo-baasama understands the way of the ninja. Although she mourned for your parents, she knew that their sacrifice was necessary."… Dear gods above! For all this time, I've been trying to rid myself of the human emotions that caused me so much pain. I've even altered my body for that cause. But her heart is even colder than mine!…_

Suddenly, Sasori felt himself being jerked in a different direction entirely, and thrust his arms out to maintain his balance in the air. Looking around for the source of the disturbance, he saw that Sakura had taken hold of his cable and was pulling him towards her. _Why is she so determined to protect this old hag? If she knew the things Chiyo has done, she wouldn't give a damn about her._ It wasn't just her betrayal of his parents, either. She had been the one who sealed Shukaku into Gaara, condemning him to a life of pain and loneliness. The kid was better off dead, really. And she was responsible for that too. Then he saw that Sakura was curling one hand into a fist. Quickly, he attached chakra strings to his own limbs, just as the pink-haired kunoichi's fist smashed him apart.

His head flew in one direction, his arms in another, and his legs went spinning off into the far reaches of the cavern. Within the biological core embedded in his torso, Sasori felt himself go tumbling end over end. Finally, all of his parts came to rest and he began to tug on the chakra strings, piecing himself back together.

Behind him, he could hear Sakura exulting, "We did it! Chiyo-sama, we did it!" Then she stopped, and turned around slowly as she heard the telltale click of Sasori's arms rejoining his torso. Finally, he placed his head on his shoulders, realized it was on backwards, and spun it around to face the girl. _This is another advantage of a puppet body,_ he thought smugly. _No matter how much damage it takes, it can just be repaired. I don't care if you blow me to pieces over and over again; I'll just keep getting back up._

The girl's face was a picture of dismay; she had clearly thought that this battle was over. Furthermore, Sasori thought he had heard her say something earlier about how her antidote would only be effective for three minutes. If she had to fight for much longer, she would lose her immunity to his poison, and then he could kill both her and Chiyo with ease.

Chiyo looked sad, but it was not the same kind of sadness that showed in Sakura's face. Slowly, she pulled out a scroll with ten seals on it. Ten puppets burst from the scroll and took up positions around the two kunoichi. The expression of despair on Sakura's face changed to one of hope. _Let's see if I can change it back again._ He recognized the puppets that Chiyo had used to destroy a fortress during the war between Sand and Stone. They were her trump card, and after this she had nothing. "That is a considerable amount of puppets," he admitted. Then he pulled out a scroll of his own, and tossed it up into the air. He opened a panel on his chest, and numerous chakra strings burst out, suspending the scroll in midair. Puppets began to pop into existence around him. Ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred. "But with this," he said as Sakura's jaw dropped open, "I took down a country."

* * *

Sasori rubbed his forehead with his hand, as if massaging a headache. "How am I going to explain this?" he wondered. He could just imagine Deidara coming back and seeing him still fighting these two—with the most powerful weapon he possessed, no less. He really hoped Tobi wouldn't see this in a premonition and tell the entire Akatsuki about it. Even a puppet still had such a thing as pride, and Sasori couldn't quite believe it was taking him this long to kill a chuunin and a retiree.

The armies of puppets rushed at each other. Chiyo's puppets were designed to work in teams of two or three, ganging up on opponents to defeat them. Sasori's puppets, by contrast, were intended to fight as individuals. In some ways, this was an extension of Sasori's personal philosophy: rely only on yourself, for others are destined to disappoint you. The puppets fought for some time, slashing and stabbing and slicing at each other. One of Sasori's puppets managed to cut Chiyo's arm, and Sasori allowed himself a small smile. There was only one dose of antidote left, and it would only last for three minutes. Although Sakura and Chiyo were formidable as a team, neither could hope to beat him alone. If Sakura was cut, or if Chiyo was cut again after the last antidote wore off, it was all over.

Suddenly, Sakura was hurtling towards him, carrying a small, glowing sphere. Sasori frowned. _What is that? Some kind of weapon?_ With all her considerable strength, Sakura threw the sphere at him. A slit opened in its side, like a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. With his blade-wings furled at his sides, the flammable fuel in his hands spent, and his attention distracted by directing a hundred puppets at once, Sasori couldn't avoid it. It slammed into him with devastating force, and he barely had time to activate the specialized Kawarimi jutsu that would transfer his biological core to another puppet.

* * *

Sasori allowed his puppets to drop to the ground. He wanted the kunoichis to think that he was finally defeated. As Sakura urged Chiyo to take the last dose of antidote, Sasori picked up a weapon that had been discarded by one of his puppets. He grimaced slightly. This puppet was well-made, but still cumbersome and slow compared to his own body. Plus, he wasn't used to fighting inside any body but his own. _I don't believe this! To be forced out of my body by these…amateurs!_ Slowly, he stood up behind Chiyo, noting with displeasure that many of his puppets had been damaged or outright destroyed. _Repairing all these is going to be so troublesome. _The poison was starting to affect Chiyo's body, and she could not dodge or even raise an arm to block the sword. Sasori swung the weapon at her neck, but a pink blur interposed itself…and he found himself impaling Sakura on the blade instead.

As Sasori met Sakura's unwavering gaze, other faces superimposed themselves over hers in his mind's eye. Kagaiya, boldly stepping in front of a wounded Asana and killing the Mist ninja who had hurt him during one of their missions. Akisane, swordfighting with Orochimaru and threatening him with nine different kinds of violent death for daring to attack Itachi. One of his students from his time as a jounin sensei, shielding another member of the team from attack with her own body during the second part of the Chuunin Exam. _This drive to protect others, even when it means putting oneself in harm's way…what's the point? Can any other person truly be worth the sacrifice of one's own life and dreams? I've never met a person who's worthy of that. I used to think that Chiyo and the other citizens of the Sand village were, but not anymore._ Looking at Sakura, Sasori saw his teammates, his students, his subordinates, mirrored in her resolute expression. But what had Chiyo done to merit such loyalty from the girl?

Sakura gritted her teeth and looked back over her shoulder. "Hurry…take the antidote…Chiyo-sama…" Sasori felt an upwelling of anger. _How can she still be determined to protect Chiyo? Doesn't she know it's useless? All the people I've ever tried to protect have left me. My parents and teammates died, Chiyo and the Kazekage betrayed me…even Deidara-san has gone off to get killed fighting that jinchuuriki and his sensei. Why bother protecting others when they're not going to stay around to appreciate it? _Sasori pushed the blade further into Sakura's torso, deepening the wound. When she began healing herself, he pulled the sword partway out so that the wound would start bleeding again. _This girl destroyed Hiruko and the Sandaime Kazekage. She's going to become part of my collection whether she likes it or not!_

Sakura cried out, and her face scrunched up in pain. Chiyo crouched on the ground behind her, unable to get to her feet. Slowly, she withdrew the last remaining antidote from a pocket of her robe. _Like that will be of any use to you now,_ Sasori thought scornfully. _Once this girl is dead, you will be unable to fight me on your own. Once the antidote wears off, I'll cut you again and you'll die too._ Then, Chiyo reached forward and pushed the syringe against Sakura's leg.

_What!_ First Sakura had put herself in harm's way to save Chiyo. Now Chiyo was condemning herself to death for Sakura's sake. _What is with these two women? Why do they protect each other so ardently?_ Suddenly, Sakura grabbed the blade of Sasori's sword and squeezed it. Blood dripped from her hand as she gripped tighter, and Sasori felt the strain in his arm as she tried to rip it out of its socket. Releasing the bolts that held the joints together, Sasori jumped backwards, leaving Sakura holding his forearm.

A shorter blade extended from the remaining portion of Sasori's right arm. As Sakura fell to her knees, he rushed at her, intending to end her life once and for all. Chiyo had collapsed onto her side, but she somehow found the strength to form chakra strings and twitch her fingers.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasori saw two shapes moving towards him from opposite sides. From a glance, it was clear what they were: the puppets he had made of his mother and father... _"Sasori-san…a few days ago, your parents were on a scouting mission that was ambushed by Rock forces. I'm afraid…that they were both killed."_ … He remembered the day, long ago, when he had turned the corpses of his parents into puppets and wrapped himself in their embrace for the last time. He had been so convinced that it would set everything right, that making them into puppets would allow him to avoid the pain of their deaths. He had thought that it would be as if they never died. But in the end, they had just been puppets, unable to move or act unless he manipulated them with his chakra. That had been the first day he had wished that he could be free of human emotions and weaknesses. Now, once again, those two puppets were approaching him from both sides, as though wishing to embrace him once more. Sasori hesitated for just an instant…and instead of embracing him, the puppets rammed their swords through the biological core in his chest.

* * *

For a few moments, Sasori simply stood there, stunned. Chiyo, the old, dying, retired hag, had somehow managed to beat him. For the first time in years, he felt pain, and it threatened to overwhelm him. He hadn't suffered so much as a paper cut in so long, and now he felt waves of agony as his parents' weapons pierced his heart. Then another thought pushed past the pain: he was going to die. He, whose body was immune to illness and poison and age and heat and cold, was going to _die_.

Oddly, that thought didn't disturb him as much as it should. He found that he really didn't care, in the end, if he lived or died. After all, the desire to live was an emotion, and he had abolished all emotions long ago. Besides, he wasn't really alive, was he? He was just a puppet.

With that thought, his normal placid calm returned to him. He even felt a certain grudging respect for these kunoichi who had fought so hard. It was at that moment that Sakura fell flat on her face. Chiyo bent over her, pulled the sword out, and began healing the wound. _Amazing! Those two are _still _trying to save each other._ Their unending determination was annoying him, so he said, "It's pointless…I hit a vital spot…I aimed for somewhere that can't be treated easily."

Chiyo looked up at him, and she seemed even older than she actually was. More than that, she seemed _tired_. Looking more weary than he had ever seen her, she informed him that she was using a tensei ninjutsu—she was transferring some of her own life energy to Sakura so that the girl would live. "In the beginning," she said, "it was for you…with this jutsu, I can even give life to a puppet."

Once again, Sasori found himself speechless… _"Chiyo-baasama understands the way of the ninja. Although she mourned for your parents, she knew that their sacrifice was necessary."_…He had hated Chiyo, believed that she had been complicit in his parents' death. Now he knew _why_. She had known that it was possible to bring someone back from the dead, and had been planning to spend years of her life mastering that technique. She had intended to sacrifice herself to resurrect them. She was not the traitor he had believed her to be. Yet…what was the point? By the time she had mastered the technique, the damage had already been done. His heart had already been so scarred that he was determined to turn it to stone. In the final analysis, her actions had been too little, too late. "Pathetic…"

* * *

Sasori couldn't move. With his biological core destroyed, the chakra was slowly draining out of his body. In a matter of minutes, he would be dead. Of course, so would Chiyo. That was some consolation, at least. It would have just been embarrassing for an Akatsuki member to die without taking any of his enemies down with him. He watched impassively as Sakura's eyes opened and she struggled to her feet. Sasori waited for Chiyo to collapse, but she did not. She explained that since Sakura had not actually died, Chiyo was not required to give up her life for the tensei jutsu. So Sasori _was _going to die without bringing down either of his opponents, after all. "Well…that's a pity."

WHAM! Sasori suddenly found himself staring at his own back as Sakura hit him in the face, spinning his head right around. Returning his head to its normal position, Sasori said contemptuously, "Give it up…this body feels no pain. If all you do is hit me, your fist is all that will hurt." Seeing the disbelieving and angry look on Sakura's face, he explained further, "Even connected by blood ties as we are, I won't feel a thing if Grandma here dies. My heart is just like this body."

Sakura's fist clenched, and Sasori expected her to punch him again. Instead, she yelled, "WHAT DO YOU THINK A HUMAN LIFE IS! WHAT DO YOU THINK BLOOD TIES ARE!" Perhaps it was the pain, or delirium caused by the chakra leaving his body, but Sasori was starting to see faces and scenes from his past superimposing themselves over what was before his eyes. Shimmering in front of Sakura's furious visage was Akisane's face, at the moment when she had confronted Kimimaro... _"How dare you betray your comrades and superiors? How can you protect that_ bastard_ who tried to hurt Itachi-sama?"_…Like Akisane, Sakura was outraged by what she saw as disloyalty. She believed that Sasori owed something to Chiyo because they were related by blood. Chiyo herself, however, looked not angry but sad.

"What made him this way is the terrible customs and teachings of the Sand."… _"Sasori-kun, _all_ shinobi are weapons. Our purpose in life is to be tools that are used to protect the Country of Wind."_ … _"An individual life is subordinate to the well-being of the village and country as a whole. Each ninja is a tool that forms one part of the impenetrable defense of the Sand."_…With such an upbringing, was it any wonder that Sasori saw people as expendable tools to whom he owed no loyalty? Was it surprising that he thought he could just make people into puppets and it wouldn't matter? Was it truly so unexpected that he would lack any respect for the 298 lives he had extinguished? That seemed to be what Chiyo was asking, and it surprised Sasori. Was she _forgiving_ him for all that he had done? Was she saying that the final blame rested at the Sand's feet and not his own?

Sakura, however, was not as willing to absolve him of responsibility for the things he had done. "What the hell are you!" she demanded.

The memories were coming faster now, rushing through his mind in a jumble. Was this what it meant when people said that your life flashed before your eyes when you were about to die?

…"_When I fight, when I go out on a dangerous mission, I do it with your face in my mind—because _you_ are that precious thing that I will protect no matter the cost."…_

…_Is she right? Are shinobi really just tools…just puppets…_

…"_Sasori-san…a few days ago, your parents were on a scouting mission that was ambushed by Rock forces. I'm afraid…that they were both killed."…_

… _Why? Why can't I be like that—no suffering, no feelings, no pain? Why must I have this human heart that aches so much?…_

…"_You really do like your puppets, don't you? You almost sound like you'd rather have one of those by your side in a fight than a real person."…_

… _Asana-san and Kagaiya-chan did all they could—it was _my _weakness that led to their deaths. My simple human weakness…_

… _No pain, no fear, no sorrow. No need to fear injury or illness, or growing old. No more of this damnable human weakness…_

… _I've endured so much, because Sandaime-sama told me it was necessary, that my blood and sweat and tears were needed to protect the village. And I trusted him, because he was the Sandaime Kazekage—the beloved leader and protector of our village. But he sent my parents to die—and none of these people that I've bled and fought for ever bothered to tell me. Well, fuck them all—I'm done with them!…_

…"_I am Akasuna no Sasori, formerly of Sunagakure, now of Akatsuki."…_

…_Is everyone I consider a comrade or friend going to either die or betray me? Is this pattern of death and treachery going to continue forever?…_

… _All the people I've ever tried to protect have left me. My parents and teammates died, Chiyo and the Kazekage betrayed me…even Deidara-san has gone off to get killed fighting that jinchuuriki and his sensei. Why bother protecting others when they're not going to stay around to appreciate it?…_

All these memories reminded Sasori of why he had chosen to become a puppet, and of why he had striven to eliminate all emotional attachments from his mind. But could he really say that he had succeeded? Other memories came to him: throwing everything he had at the Stone ninjas who had killed Kagaiya and Asana, overcome with rage and sorrow. Saving Tobi and Akisane after they had been wounded by Orochimaru. The relief he had felt when he saw that Deidara had survived his battle with Gaara. Letting Kankurou live because of the determination he showed to protect his Kazekage. Even now, feeling concern for Deidara's fate as he fought the Kyuubi brat and the Copy Ninja. Despite his best efforts, vestiges of human feeling remained within him. _No matter how I alter my body, my mind is still human. Maybe it's just not possible for a shinobi to become a truly emotionless tool._

Looking up at Sakura, Sasori answered her question. "If I must say…maybe…a person who couldn't become a puppet…"

* * *

Sasori sighed. All the emotions that he had suppressed for so long were finally making themselves known. He felt the grief over his parents' and teammates' deaths that he had buried years ago. He burned with anger at Orochimaru's betrayal. His dark mood was brightened somewhat by the affection he held for Deidara, Tobi, and Akisane. And he also felt some respect for Chiyo and Sakura. An entire country had tried to defeat him and failed, yet these two shinobi had succeeded. Somehow, Sakura reminded him of both Kagaiya and Akisane. That determination to achieve one's goals and protect one's precious people that blazed in Sakura's eyes was the source of their strength as well. It was perhaps for that reason that he decided to give Sakura what she wanted. She might have no chance against Orochimaru, and Sasuke might not want to come back. But she had earned the right to at least try. "Go to the Tenchi Bridge in the Village of Grass at noon ten days from now," he told her. "I have a spy among Orochimaru's subordinates…I am supposed to meet…with him there…" One last time, a sequence of faces flashed across Sasori's vision. His parents. Chiyo. Asana. Kagaiya. Tobi. Akisane. Deidara. _You were all…precious people…_

When Deidara's face faded out of his vision, only blackness replaced it.

* * *

Tobi clenched Sasori's ring tight in his fist. _They have to make me an Akatsuki now! They have to! I won't be able to avenge him otherwise._ He trudged through the mud, barely noticing the rain that cascaded down around him. He was too lost in memories—memories of hiding behind a ridge and watching in awe as Sasori decimated the army of the Moutain Country, memories of waking up on the floor of the Akatsuki base and finding one of Sasori's puppets healing the wound Kimimaro had given him. "What's the point?" he muttered disconsolately.

"What do you mean?" Akisane asked. Her voice was rough and higher than usual. She carried Sasori's puppet body over one shoulder.

"I mean, what's the point of being able to _see _the goddamned future if I can't do anything to _change_ it?"

"This isn't your fault, Tobi-san," Deidara said. In contrast to his normal cheerful and confident disposition, his current manner was subdued and quiet. "I should never have left him alone to go fight that jinchuuriki…I just didn't think an old woman and a little girl would have any chance of beating Sasori-danna, yeah." In his one remaining arm, Deidara cradled Sasori's biological core, wrapped in Sasori's Akatsuki robe.

"No," Akisane said, "This wasn't anyone's fault except those two kunoichi who killed him. The rest of us did all we could."

"Anyway," said Zetsu, "we will need someone to take Sasori-san's place." He looked over his shoulder at Tobi. "I think Tobi-kun is ready."

Tobi nodded eagerly. "I want to take his place. I'll…I'll honor his memory by doing the best I can for the Akatsuki."

"But," interjected Deidara, "I want to work with Zetsu-san again, like I did when Sasori-danna was partnered with Orochimaru. That means we need to finally replace Orochimaru, so that Tobi-kun will have a partner. We don't want him wandering around on his own—he'll probably just get killed without someone to look after him, yeah."

"I appreciate your confidence in me," Tobi said wryly.

"Hey, don't talk to me like that or I'll choke you with my legs again, yeah," Deidara said, and a faint shadow of his usual grin appeared on his face.

* * *

Tobi emerged onto the plateau behind the Akatsuki base, his steps slow and solemn. His new robe swished around his body, ruffled by the light breeze. He glanced back over his shoulder at Akisane and Deidara. He and Akisane were carrying a stretcher on which rested Sasori's puppet body, and Deidara was carrying Sasori's biological core in his left hand. Tobi had been able to heal Deidara's left arm, but the right was beyond repair, due to the fact that the portion of it around the elbow had been banished to another dimension. In the long term, that didn't really matter much—once Shukaku was implanted into Deidara, he would be able to create a new arm for himself out of sand and clay.

The other members of the organization were waiting on the plateau, flanking a pyre that they had built. Tobi and Akisane hefted the stretcher bearing Sasori's body onto the pyre, and Deidara placed the biological core on top of Sasori's chest. Then they stepped back, forming a circle around the pyre with the other members.

Deidara stepped forward, his eyes gleaming with what could have been either reflected light from the stars above, or tears. "He was…an artist, and he died as an artist should, in the moment when his art achieved its greatest perfection…He believed in eternal beauty, and though he himself is gone, he will indeed live eternally in our memories…yeah…" From a pocket of his robe, Deidara withdrew a small clay medallion into which the kanji for the word "artist" had been carved. He placed it on the pyre next to Sasori, and raised his hand to mold his chakra. Instead of detonating instantly like most of Deidara's creations, the medallion slowly began to burn, lighting the wood underneath it on fire. The flames rose, consuming the body that lay on the pyre. The Akatsuki stood silently, watching as the flames reached their peak and began to die away. One by one, they returned to the interior of the base, until only Deidara, Tobi, and Akisane were left standing around the pyre. Deidara eventually left too, but instead of re-entering the base, he walked over to the edge of the plateau, where he stood staring at the stars.

"You know…if it weren't for Sasori-sama, I would never have been able to continue as a ninja." Akisane stared into the dying flames as she said this. While the collar of Tobi's robe was open, hers was buttoned all the way up, so that only her eyes and the top of her head could be seen above it. This was, Tobi suspected, to hide the fact that her lower lip was trembling.

"If it weren't for him, I'd be dead."

"Please try…try to be a good successor to him, Tobi-san."

Tobi nodded slowly. "I didn't want it to happen like this. I wanted to be part of the Akatsuki, but I thought I'd replace Orochimaru. I didn't think…this isn't how…" He trailed off, not sure what to say.

"What are we going to do?" Tobi met Akisane's eyes, and saw an uncertainty in them that was rarely present. The look in those eyes was like that of a child who has just realized that her parents aren't invincible, that there are some things the people she looks up to just can't fix. Tobi knew how she felt. He had always thought there was _nothing_ the Akatsuki couldn't do, no opponent they couldn't defeat. He looked down at Sasori's ring resting on his finger, and clenched that hand into a fist.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do," he said, removing his mask so that Akisane could see the resolute expression on his face. His left eye, the one usually hidden by the mask, was covered with a milky cataract. It could not see anything in the real world, but was constantly peering forward through time. "We're going to avenge Sasori-sama's death. We're going to pay back Konoha and the Sand a hundred times over for killing him. And then, we're going to finish the work he started—we're going to make sure the Akatsuki's mission is completed. That's how we'll honor him."

"Is that a promise?"

Tobi reached out and took Akisane's hand, gripping it tightly. He remembered watching Sasori build that hand, meticulously crafting it so that it would be a perfect replacement for the one Orochimaru had cut off. "Yeah. It's the promise of a lifetime."

* * *

Deidara stood at the edge of the plateau, staring up at the sky. It was a clear night, and the constellation Scorpio shone brightly in the sky directly overhead. Deidara remembered his fight with Sasori back when the puppetmaster had first entered the Akatsuki. Sasori had amazed Deidara with his skill that day, and his respect for the man had only grown since. Even more importantly, Sasori was the only other member who truly understood Deidara. Although they disagreed over the exact definition of art, Sasori nevertheless understood that jutsus were not just tools, but creations and expressions of beauty. No one else in the Akatsuki shared Deidara's rather unique outlook on life in that respect. _You were…a great artist. Even greater than me, yeah. Rest in peace, Sasori-danna…_

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Scorpio seemed to glow just a little bit brighter.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this took so long to update! I took my time with it, because I wanted to make sure I got everything right. I hope it was worth the wait.

A threnody is a dirge or lamentation for the dead. Scorpio is one of the zodiac constellations, representing the scorpion who killed the great hunter Orion in Greek mythology. In astrology, it is a water sign, and is linked to regeneration, mysticism, sex, and death. A man born under the sign of Scorpio is believed to be determined and thoughtful. (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

A big, huge thank you to all who reviewed! This is by far the longest fanfic I've written, so I hope it came out well. Thanks for reading!


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